“The Emperor is coming.”
Tiger Woods (USA), the ‘Emperor of Golf’, will compete in an official tournament after 7 months. The US Professional Golf (PGA) Tour Genesis Invitational (total prize money of 20 million dollars), which will be held at Riviera CC (par 71) in Pacific Palisades near Los Angeles, California, for four days from the 17th (Korean time) is the stage for the sortie.
It is the first time Woods has appeared in an official PGA Tour event in seven months since the Open Championship in July last year. As for general competitions, it has been 2 years and 4 months since the 2020 Jojo Championship.
After participating in the 2021 tournament, Woods suffered serious injuries to his legs and ankles in a major car accident in which he himself drove a car. He underwent several surgeries and rigorous rehabilitation, but his physical condition is not what it used to be.
There is a good reason why he decided to make this tournament his first appearance this year. First of all, he is the host himself. Players participating in the tournament are invited by Woods. It is also historically significant that he made his PGA Tour debut in 1992 at the age of 16 through this tournament.
Woods won his 82nd PGA Tour career by winning the Jojo Championship in 2019. He is tied with Sam Snead for most wins on the tour. But he won’t win this tournament.
Woods’ best record in this tournament was runner-up twice in 1998 and 1999. Woods was born and raised an hour away from Riviera CC. However, he has not been able to lift the championship trophy even once in 14 tournaments held on the same place as his ‘home course’.
The Genesis Invitational is a PGA Tour special event held for two consecutive weeks along with the WM Phoenix Open last week. As such, there are plenty of viewing points. The most interesting is the return match of the ‘Big 3’. 슬롯사이트
Scotty Scheffler (USA), Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland), and John Rahm (Spain), who are ranked 1st to 3rd in the men’s golf world rankings, will also participate in this event. In last week’s competition, Schaeffler won, pushing McIlroy to second place and regaining the first place in about four months.
Since the difference in points between the three players is not large, the world rankings will inevitably fluctuate again depending on the results of this tournament. In addition to them, 23 out of the top 25 players in the world rankings and 40 out of 50 players will participate and compete fiercely for the championship.
As a competition sponsored by a Korean company, a large number of ‘Korean Brothers’ will also participate. Im Seong-jae (25, CJ Logistics), Kim Joo-hyung (21, Nike Golf), Kim Si-woo (28, CJ Logistics), Lee Kyung-hoon (32, CJ Logistics), Kim Seong-hyeon (25, Shinhan Financial Group), Kim Young-soo (34, PNS Holdings ) and six others.
In particular, there is interest in whether Kim Young-soo will be able to pass the cut for the first time as a player on the Korean Professional Golf Association (KPGA) Korean Tour. Kim Young-soo took the opportunity to play on the stage of his dreams as the winner of the KPGA Korean Tour Genesis Championship last year.