Buick Invitational has different look without Tiger Woods

The 5.3 million-dollar Buick Open at Torrey Pines has a decidedly different look this year, with six-time champion Tiger Woods still sidelined in the wake of knee surgery.

Woods has stamped his authority on Torrey Pines, where the tournament begins on Thursday - not only in the Buick Open but also in last June's US Open.

Woods won the Open despite playing with a torn knee ligament and stress fractures in his left leg - a gutsy performance that was followed by reconstructive surgery.

He hasn't played since, and has yet to give a date for his return. That means his current run of Buick Open victories will end at four - capped by last year's eight-stroke triumph.

Nor will fans get to see the man who pushed Woods all the way through a playoff at the US Open revisit Torrey Pines, as Rocco Mediate withdrew on Monday.

Heading the field will be Ireland's Padraig Harrington in his US season debut, and San Diego resident Phil Mickelson.

Mickelson is trying to rebound from a missed cut at his own season-opener, the FBR Open in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"I love this tournament, and it's because every time I go out and play, just like I did this morning, it brings back memories of when I was with my dad looking from the outside of the ropes looking in and dreaming of playing the tour," Mickelson said.

"I know I've been out here a while, I'm kind of the older guy, but it still makes me feel young when I think what it was like dreaming of playing the tour and walking at the tournament with my dad."

Mickelson admitted that Woods's absence left a void.

"I think that this tournament certainly misses his presence. You know, he's been such a mainstay of this event. He's played so well here," Mickelson said. "Plus he had just won the US Open here as well as last year's tournament here.

"He played so well on the course that I know the tournament misses him immensely. I miss the opportunity to compete against him, we all do, and we hope that he gets back out soon, and it looks like he will be out soon."

Mickelson has won this event three times, while Harrington - the 2008 US PGA Tour Player of the Year and winner of the British Open and PGA Chamionship crowns last year - is making his first appearance.

England's Luke Donald and American Charles Howell, two players who have finished runner-up here twice, are also entered.