Tiger Woods: 2020 start date announced, will play Farmers and Genesis

The news that everyone was waiting on finally became official, as Tiger Woods announced that he would kick off 2020 at the Farmers Insurance Open, teeing off on January 23rd.

Most people thought that Tiger Woods would start off at the Farmers, but it wasn’t certain. Some thought that he would wait until the Genesis Invitational, which was granted invitational status last year.

It turns out that it is indeed going to be the Farmers, and it makes sense. Torrey Pines is a course that Tiger Woods loves, and one that he has had immense success throughout his career. A lot of players make a career on the PGA Tour without ever winning eight events. Tiger has won eight times alone at Torrey Pines.

It’s going to make for a nice start to the year for Tiger. He will be at the Farmers, which kicks off on January 23rd. After taking a short break, he will then be at the Genesis Invitational, taking part in the newly established 120 man field.

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It’s smart as well. Tiger gets to stay in Southern California, where he should be able to keep warm, knocking any rust off that has accumulated over the last month. He will avoid long travel and should ease his way back into the 2020 PGA Tour season.

Personally, I’m excited. We got to see Tiger dominate at the Presidents Cup, leading the US Team to an incredible comeback victory. Now, we will get to see him at a course that he is extremely comfortable at, followed by a tournament in the same area two weeks later that is essentially his tournament, much like the Memorial for Jack Nicklaus and the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

It remains to be seen as to how Tiger is going to schedule the rest of his golf in the lead up to the Masters. He is tied with Snead now for all-time wins, so the Majors are likely the only thing on his mind as he races to catch the Golden Bear at 18.

There are plenty of big events remaining that we could see him at. The WGC-Mexico, the aforementioned Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Honda Classic, the PLAYERS, and the WGC-Match Play event. He is likely going to play in the majority of them, as long as he stays healthy. For those that don’t remember, he pulled out before the Arnold Palmer started last year due to a neck strain.

It’s likely going to be a mix of playing in the big-name tournaments and taking time off to avoid too many back-to-back weeks. If he was a member of the San Antonio Spurs, Pop would definitely be benching him a few of those weeks with a simple DNP-OLD. Tiger knows he isn’t as spry as he once was, and needs to relax and not push it too hard with a bunch of back-to-back tournaments before the Masters.

For now, we know where he will be over the next month. The Farmers on the 23rd, and then the Genesis on February 13th. I’m glad I only have to wait two more weeks to get Tiger Woods back in my life. Until then, I might just head on over to the Golf Channel to get my winter golf fix in.