Woods Won’t Play at Riviera

Tiger Woods, who is as familiar to the Nissan Open as the eucalyptus trees at Riviera Country Club, isn’t playing in next week’s event.

Woods withdrew from the Nissan Open to take a break from tournament golf. He said he needs to rest up, and his agent said he needs to get ready for the $5-million Accenture Match Play Championships on Feb. 20-24 at La Costa.

Woods says he hasn’t been at full strength since he got sick last week before the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

“I just want to go home and get my strength back,” Woods said Saturday. “I’ve been sick for almost two weeks now.”

Woods shot a three-under 69 in the third round of the Buick Invitational, his second tournament in two weeks. He is six shots behind co-leaders Jerry Kelly, Mark O’Meara and J.L. Lewis with one round to play at Torrey Pines.

If Woods had entered Riviera, he would have been committed to four consecutive weeks of events and six in the last six weeks to begin the year, counting the Mercedes Championships and the New Zealand Open.

Mark Steinberg of IMG says Woods is going to be busy on the practice tee next week.

“I think he’s going to go through a pretty intensive week of preparation for the match play,” said Steinberg, who claimed Woods thought a lot about pulling out of Riviera.

“It’s a difficult decision for him because he’s got such strong ties to the tournament and Riviera, but he just feels like at this point of the year, it’s a good time to practice intensely instead of playing tournament golf.”

Woods was included on Nissan’s original commitment list, but withdrew. He has not missed the Nissan Open since turning professional in September 1996. He also played it twice as an amateur, in 1992 and ‘93, and was 16 in his first appearance at Riviera.

The closest he came to winning was in 1998 when he lost to Billy Mayfair in a playoff at Valencia.

Woods missed the cut at the Nissan in his amateur appearances as a teenager. In his first appearance as a pro in 1997, he tied for 20th. He was runner-up to Mayfair in 1998, tied for second when Ernie Els won in 1999, tied for 18th in 2000 and tied for 13th last year when Robert Allenby won in a playoff.

Tom Pulchinski, tournament director of the Nissan Open, was disappointed at not having Woods.

“Naturally, you’d like to have Tiger at your tournament,” Pulchinski said. “But we have a great field, 40 of the top 50 on the money list, a great international contingent including Sergio Garcia, Darren Clarke, Jose Maria Olazabal, Lee Westwood and Vijay Singh, plus David Duval.

“If people want to see a good product, we’ve got it. It’s not like we have a weak field and everyone comes to see Tiger play.”

Woods says he will return to Southern California for the World Golf Championship match play event.