Tiger ends 10-year absence from US Tour event at Pebble

Tiger Woods will make his 2012 US Tour debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am next month.

Woods, who hasn’t played in the tournament since 2002, was the winner in 2000 and later that year returned to Pebble Beach to win the US Open by a staggering 15 strokes.

“I’m excited to start my PGA Tour season at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am,” Woods said on his website.

“AT&T is a great partner to my Foundation, and I’m looking forward to playing in this event. I haven’t been to this tournament lately, but I have a lot of good memories at Pebble. It will be fun going back.

Favourite spots

“It’s always been one of my favourite spots,” said Woods, whose last appearance at the stunning venue on the Monterey coast in California was a fourth place in the 2010 US Open, won by Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.

Despite no appearance in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am for 10 years, Tiger has played the event six times previously and, as well as his win in 2000, can boast a second place in 1997 and two other finishes in the top 15.

Since he last appeared in 2002, the tournament has improved by trimming the field from 180 players to 156 players, and taking Poppy Hills out of the rotation and replacing it with the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula.

Although Pebble Beach – scheduled from February 9-12 – will be his first US Tour event of the year, Woods’ opening tournament of 2012 will come two weeks earlier at the European Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship which starts on January 26th.

Woods ended his 2011 campaign by winning the Chevron World Challenge in December, a result which lifted him back into the world’s top 25 after he’d dropped out of the top 50 after a two-year win drought.