Tiger Gets A Round In At Torrey Pines

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) - Tiger Woods may enter next week's U.S. Open a bit rusty, but he won't enter it unprepared. Woods got his first look at how the course will be set up for the season's second major on Wednesday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Coming off knee surgery performed two days after finishing second at The Masters, Woods had not played a round since Augusta. He got in 17 holes on Wednesday, picking up his ball about 100 yards from the 18th green after seeing that a group of people had begun to gather. According to the report, Woods began his round at 8 a.m. local time and played in 3 hours, 15 minutes under tight security. No media or spectators were allowed on the South Course at the time Woods was playing.

Woods won his sixth Buick Invitational here in January and no player has been as successful at Torrey Pines. Despite that success, Woods could not afford to wait to see what the USGA has cooked up on the course. Woods and everyone else knows that the layout will be significantly different than it was in January and time is running out to get a private look at the changes.

Woods has been down this road before, but just under different circumstances. He did not play between The Masters and U.S. Open in 2006 due to the death of his father Earl. Woods missed the cut at Winged Foot, marking the first time he had missed the cut in a major as a professional.

Woods will be paired with world No. 2 Phil Mickelson and third-ranked Adam Scott after the top groupings were announced. Mickelson and Woods played together once before at the U.S. Open, in the third round at Pinehurst in 1999. The late Payne Stewart won that year, with Mickelson second and Woods third. Ernie Els, Justin Rose and Geoff Ogilvy make up another trio.

Stewart Cink, Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh will be together while KJ Choi, Jim Furyk and Steve Stricker make up the other big-name grouping. All told, the top 12 players in the world will be accounted for in the four groups. The rest of the groupings will be announced later Thursday. The first round of the U.S. Open is June 12.