Tiger Woods to start season at Farmers Insurance Open

ByBOB HARIG
January 4, 2018, 12:45 PM

— -- Tiger Woods will make his 2018 debut at the Farmers Insurance Open later this month, his first official PGA Tour event since he missed the cut at the same tournament a year ago.

Woods, 42, has won the event at Torrey Pines near San Diego seven times, the last in 2013. He also won the 2008 U.S. Open at the venue, the most recent of his 14 major championships.

The tournament begins on Jan. 25.

Woods also announced that he will be playing the Genesis Open at Riviera, which is run by the Tiger Woods Foundation. That tournament begins Feb. 15 in Pacific Palisades, California.

"I haven't played at Riviera in a tournament in a very long time,'' Woods said on his website. "To be able to play in an event that I used to come to as an amateur, as a junior and now as the tournament host, that is on one of the most historic sites in all of golf, it's a dream come true.''

Woods made his PGA Tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur at Riviera in 1992.

In December, Woods returned to competition for the first time in 10 months when he tied for ninth at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, where he shot rounds of 69-68-76-65 to finish 8-under par.

Although he finished 10 strokes behind winner Rickie Fowler, it was an impressive return for Woods, who underwent a fourth back surgery in April and has started just four tournaments since August 2015.