Farmers Insurance Open 2014: Tee times, pairings for Thursday’s round

The 2014 PGA Tour season is already three weeks old, but the year begins in earnest on Thursday at Torrey Pines. Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world and the biggest superstar in the history of the game, starts his season at the Farmers Insurance Open, one of a handful of annual events he’s come to dominate.

UPDATE: Tee times have been pushed back 30 minutes, due to the same pesky marine layer fog that disrupted last year’s Farmers Insurance Open.

Under the new and confusing wraparound schedule, this is actually the 10th event of the FedExCup season. But golf is not on the mind until Tiger tees it up, and he’ll be off at 1:40 p.m. ET for his first 18 of the new year, playing alongside 2013 Rookie of the Year Jordan Spieth and current FedExCup standings leader Jimmy Walker. Tiger’s group is always the marquee group of the day, but Spieth is arguably the most talented American player to come along since Woods, and the most successful at his 20-year-old age, too.

For the second straight year at the Farmers Insurance Open, Woods is attempting to set a new record with eight wins at one single Tour event. Tiger, of course, matched his own record of seven last year with subsequent 2013 wins at Bay Hill and Firestone, and it’s very likely those same boxes are checked again in 2014. At Torrey’s South Course, however, he can claim a ninth separate PGA Tour victory -- that legendary U.S. Open playoff win on one leg over Rocco Mediate adding to the total.

It’s obviously the start of a monumental season for Tiger, who is approaching almost six full years since his last major championship, the aforementioned victory at Torrey. Woods always measures success by major wins, but one more Farmers Insurance Open win would put him just two back of matching Sam Snead’s once unthinkable record of 82 PGA Tour wins. If Tiger picks up trophies at the usual spots -- Torrey Pines, Doral, Bay Hill -- he could pull even before the Masters.

Tiger will be the overwhelming favorite, and given his track record here, it will be more of a surprise if he doesn’t beat the field. But the field is pretty loaded, as this is one of the better stops and better venues early in the West Coast swing. Phil Mickelson, the San Diego native, will also be making his PGA Tour debut. Mickelson opened the year last week in Abu Dhabi with a strong second place showing that was just one “crazy shit” sequence away from a debut win. Even though the course, one of the best public layouts in the country, is right in his backyard, Phil has made it clear he’s not fond of Torrey South, particularly since it was redesigned by Rees Jones (an architect notoriously antagonized by Phil).

Mickelson will play with Bubba Watson, the 2011 winner here, and Jason Day, the No. 10 player in the world and a trendy pick to finally win at Augusta in a few months. They will obviously have the second-largest galleries behind the Tiger grouping.

With the Tour utilizing both the (easier) North and South courses for the first two days, there is no need to send the groups off in two separate morning and afternoon waves. So the first group off will go at the relatively late start of 9 a.m. local (Noon ET), the entire field playing in one wave off the four separate tees. Tiger will begin the week on the South Course while Phil will try to get aggressive and pour in birdies on the North Course. Here’s the full tee sheet for Thursday’s opening round:

Going off No. 1:

Going off No. 10:

Going off No. 1:

Going off No. 10:

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