Tiger Woods, in what has recently become the worst-kept secret in golf, will indeed begin his 2015 season at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and follow that up the next week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Tiger Woods to tee off 2015 season at Phoenix Open and Torrey Pines
It’s official: Tiger Woods confirms he will add to the hysteria at TPC Scottsdale when he makes his 2015 season debut at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
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Starting my year off at Phoenix & Torrey back-to-back weeks. I’m ready to go. Should be a lot of fun. http://t.co/sRnFLf6NvM
— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 9, 2015 Woods had been rumored to kick off his campaign at the PGA Tour’s largest outdoor cocktail party, speculation that Tiger’s good pal Notah Begay essentially confirmed the same night after a Golf.com report surfaced on Wednesday.
The January 29 start will mark the first time Woods has returned to the zoo otherwise known as the WMPO since 2001. His presence will give the Super Bowl -- taking place in nearby Glendale that Sunday -- a run for its money as the athletic event of the moment with the most cache.
Woods lit the well-lubricated fans up in 1997, when he aced the renowned par-3 16th (the video he tweeted out today). The venue back then had yet to be enclosed and circled by Fenway Park-like grandstands. It was a more organic party before corporate skyboxes got involved and fans were free to shower their beers all over the tee box.
Another highlight of Tiger’s stints at TPC Scottsdale occurred in 1999, when, with a little help from his friends, he moved a one-ton boulder that blocked his shot to the green (bet Brandel Chamblee would have a field day with that, if it were ever to occur again).
“It will be great to return to Phoenix,” Woods said on his website on Friday. “The crowds are amazing and always enthusiastic, and the 16th hole is pretty unique in golf. Torrey is a very important place to me. My pop took me there when I was younger, and I have a lot of special memories of watching the tour play there when I was growing up.”
In three previous starts at the WMPO, Woods finished third in 1999, T5 in 2001 and T18 in 1997.
Woods’ next stop this season is less of a surprise, since he has won nine times at Torrey Pines and regularly blesses that event. Last year, at the start of his worst season as a pro, though, Tiger missed his first-ever 54-hole cut at the formerly friendly confines.
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