Eagerly Awaiting the Buick Invitational

by Mulligan Stu on Jan 21, 2008 4:48 PM EST Comment 0 comments

It's Buick Invitational week, and I can't wait for the tournament to start. It's going to be a big one this year.

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are playing for the first time in 2008, at a place that suits them both. Plus, the South Course at Torrey Pines is where the U.S. Open will be played in several months, so we'll get a preview of the Open course.

Woods and Mickelson have won the Buick between them seven of the last nine years. That's a little misleading, though, because Tiger had been much more dominant at Torrey Pines than Phil. Tiger has five of those seven wins, including the last three, and Phil hasn't won this tournament since 2001.

Still, the Torrey Pines courses - where bombing it is paramount - are perfect for both Woods and Mickelson. Particularly the South Course, which, after "the Open doctor" Rees Jones' touching up, now plays 7,568 yards.

Brian Hewitt, writing on golfchannel.com, says:

And nobody will be watching more closely than Mike Davis, the USGA's chief course set-up guy. That's because the Monday after the Buick Invitational ends is the first day Davis gets his hands, full time, on Torrey Pines South, the site of June's U.S. Open.

"It's pretty much going to be the same course next week as it will be for the U.S. Open as far as what people see," Davis told the Golf Channel this week.

Davis told Hewitt that the lesson learned at Oakmont last year was that the first cut of rough was too penal, so the graduated rough at Torrey Pines should be shorter and thinner. Which plays right into the hands of Woods and Mickelson.

And Davis also said that the South Course's greens usually run from 9.5 to 10.5 on the Stimpmeter, but "my guess is we'll be closer to 13. That's a speed those greens have never been at before."

Again, that plays right into the hands of Woods and Mickelson.

The Buick Invitational has the potential to be a fantastic golf tournament this week. But regardless of what happens at the Buick, getting Tiger and Phil back at this course for the U.S. Open in June should result in a blockbuster.