Winner’s Bag: Joel Dahmen, Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship

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Tiger Woods will make his 2019 calendar debut at next week’s Farmers Insurance Open, an event he’s won seven times. The tournament made the official announcement Wednesday. Woods also committed to playing in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles on February 14-17 where he doubles as the tournament host. Woods’ last PGA TOUR appearance was the memorable TOUR Championship in September when he walked up the 18th fairway en route to victory through a crowd of fans. That win was the 80th of his TOUR career, putting him just two shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record. The last time Woods played competitively was the week after Thanksgiving at his Hero World Challenge, a non-TOUR event in the Bahamas. Woods did not fare well that week, finishing 17th in the 18-man field. Still, the thought of a healthy Woods for a full season will be a huge storyline this season. A year ago when Woods played at Torrey Pines, he was still unsure how much he could play after enduring four back surgeries. After being limited to just two tournaments in the span of more than two full calendar years, Woods made his comeback in 2018, starting at Torrey Pines. He played 18 tournaments, securing 12 top-25 finishes and seven top-10s – including a pair of runner-up placings and his TOUR Championship win, his first victory in more than five years. He finished T6 or better in The Open Championship and the PGA Championship and earned more than $5 million for just the second time in nine seasons. Woods won the Farmers in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2013, and earned his most recent major championship victory in a 19-hole playoff at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in 2008. In addition to his seven victories, Woods has finished in the top 10 six other times in 16 appearances. He is the tournament’s all-time leading money winner, with $6,915,700. “We couldn’t be happier to have Tiger back in our field,â€� said Century Club of San Diego CEO Peter Ripa. “He really launched his fairytale comeback season right here last January, and he has enjoyed incredible success at Torrey Pines Golf Course and in our tournament over the years. It will be exciting to see him alongside many of the game’s other top players Jan. 24-27.â€� Until last year, Woods hadn’t played four complete rounds in the Farmers since his last victory here in 2013. After missing the cut during an abbreviated comeback in 2017, he advanced to the weekend last year by making birdie on his 18th hole Friday to make the cut on the number. Rounds of 70 and 72 Saturday and Sunday left him tied for 23rd. He would go on to secure top-10 finishes in the Valspar Championship, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Quicken Loans National, The Open Championship, the PGA Championship and the BMW Championship before his season-ending victory at East Lake. “This year as a whole was probably the most rewarding, because there was a point where I just didn’t know if I would ever do this again,â€� Woods said before the Hero World Challenge. “The expectations are much different this upcoming year. Now I know that I can do it, now it’s just about managing and making sure I’m fresh for events, because I know I can win tournaments again.â€� Twenty years ago, Woods captured his first title at the Farmers Insurance Open. It was his eighth victory on the PGA TOUR but carried extra significance because of the golf course on which he did it. Woods joins a strong list of early commitments that includes defending champion Jason Day; defending FedExCup champion Justin Rose; San Diego native Xander Schauffele; 2017 Farmers Insurance Open winner Jon Rahm; along with world top-30 players Rory McIlroy, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, Marc Leishman, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Alex Noren, Gary Woodland and Hideki Matsuyama. Joining Fowler and Schauffele among San Diego products committed to the Farmers Insurance Open are Torrey Pines High School graduates Pat Perez and Jamie Lovemark, Poway product Charley Hoffman and San Diego State University alum J.J. Spaun. Joining Woods and Rahm as past tournament champions who have committed are Day (2018, 2015), Brandt Snedeker (2016, 2012), Scott Stallings (2014), Ben Crane (2010) and Nick Watney (2009). Young up-and-coming players to watch who have committed include PGA TOUR rookie and long-bomber Cameron Champ and 19-year-old Chilean sensation Joaquin Niemann. Woods will look to better last year’s performance at Riviera in February. In his first appearance at the event since 2006 Woods missed the cut, just one of two (U.S. Open) missed weekends all season. Prior to that he had eight top-20 finishes at Riviera, including runner up finishes in 1998 and 1999. The Riviera Country Club was the site of Woods’ first PGA TOUR event in 1992, competing on a sponsor’s exemption as an amateur. Woods’ TGR Live manages the Genesis Open and proceeds from the tournament benefit his TGR Foundation. “I’m looking forward to being back in Los Angeles for the Genesis Open,â€� Woods said. “It’s always great to be able to play at Riviera and I am very proud of the impact the Genesis Open has been able to make on education through my foundation.â€�

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PGA TOUR LIVE is back. This week's The American Express marks the return of the streaming service, which showcases exclusive early coverage from the PGA TOUR. The broadcast from PGA West will include Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Matthew Wolff and tournament host Phil Mickelson. They'll be competing on two courses at PGA West, including Pete Dye's famed Stadium Course and its island-green 17th nicknamed Alcatraz. Related: Tee times | The First Look, How to Watch A star-studded charity match also will be available Wednesday on PGA TOUR LIVE. Country music artist Jake Owen and soccer star Landon Donovan will team with Tony Finau and Paul Casey in the nine-hole match from PGA West's Stadium Course. Mickelson will host the match and participate through "Phil's Challenges." Each player, including Mickelson, will take a shot at a $1 million hole-in-one for charity on Alcatraz, as well. The match will tee off at 2 p.m. Pacific. The Featured Groups, which will tee off at 1:40 and 1:50 p.m. Eastern each day on PGA West’s Stadium Course, are listed below. To prepare you for PGA TOUR LIVE’s coverage, our roundtable of writers convened to answer a burning question around each group. Enjoy. THURSDAY Patrick Reed, Andrew Landry, Gary Woodland (1:40 p.m. ET, No. 1 tee, Stadium) – Andrew Landry has a win and playoff loss in his last three American Express starts. Will he finish as low man in this group? SEAN MARTIN: Landry has nine career top-10s on TOUR. Two have come at this event. But I think Reed is the man to beat in this group. Reed has a win at this event, in 2014, and earned his PGA TOUR card at a Q-School on the two courses in use this week. He has exhibited some incredible consistency lately, finishing in the top 25 in two-thirds of his starts since the start of last season, including all four in 2020-21. BEN EVERILL: Not this time. Patrick Reed is a desert warrior who has surprised us by playing in this desert instead of being in a Middle East one. He should threaten to win the whole thing. CAMERON MORFIT: I'll subscribe to the horses-for-courses theory and go with defending champ Landry here. I know he didn't show much at the Sentry TOC and missed the cut at the Sony Open, but he won here last year after missing five consecutive cuts. It wasn't that long ago that he finished T4 at The RSM Classic. I'll say he picks up right where he left off in the desert and notches another top-10 finish. Kevin Na, Matthew Wolff, Tony Finau (1:50 p.m. ET, No. 1 tee, Stadium) – Na had one win in his first 369 TOUR starts. He has four in his last 55, including last week's Sony Open. Finau has one win in his first 170 starts. How many will he finish his career with? MARTIN: Finau is just 31. He has plenty of time left. I think 10 is within reach but seven seems more realistic. I still think Finau could have some multiple-win seasons ahead of him. EVERILL: Should be 10 (or more), I want to say six but I'm going to take the under and say four. MORFIT: With his talent I would have guessed double digits, but it's just so hard to win on TOUR, and he's let a few victories pass him by already. I'll say he ends up with six wins, and I wouldn't be at all shocked if one of those was a major. FRIDAY Cameron Champ, Brooks Koepka, Paul Casey (1:40 p.m. ET, No. 1 tee, Stadium) – What do you expect out of Koepka this year? MARTIN: He had two top-10s in the fall but also ended the year with a missed cut. I think he will return to East Lake but I'm not sure about a win. He had opportunities to win late last season but wasn't able to capitalize on them. He said Tuesday he feels good, so this week will be an opportunity to show us what to expect. EVERILL: If he's fully fit, a return to some dominant wins. When he's at his peak, he's a beast. I'd love to see him and DJ down the stretch in a tournament at some point. MORFIT: That's just it, Ben - the big IF remains. Is he healthy again? If so, I'd expect him to make a strong run at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines South, which is precisely the type of big, brawny course that sets him apart from the rest. Patrick Cantlay, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler (1:50 p.m. ET, No. 1 tee, Stadium) – More likely to join Cantlay as a winner on the PGA TOUR this season, Mickelson or Fowler? It's been two years since each won. MARTIN: Mickelson finished runner-up not long ago at the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, and he has some winning mojo after his back-to-back triumphs on PGA TOUR Champions. His recent results haven't been very good, in part because of his obsession with hitting bombs, but if he could back off the gas a bit, and the putter gets hot, he can pick off another win after age 50. EVERILL: I'm not sure either will but of course both could! I'll stick with youth and say Fowler. His good stuff is more likely to turn up over four days while Mickelson's mistakes continue to get punished exponentially on this TOUR. MORFIT: I'm guessing we haven't seen the last of Fowler in the winner's circle, even though his swing changes have taken longer to solidify than he probably thought they would. It's the old story of working so hard on the swing you neglect your putting, but his above-average ability on the greens will return, and I'm guessing his swing change is pretty close to being complete.

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