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.
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.
Copyright 2009  AFP American Edition
