Woods Seems to Have a Winning Schedule

The Tiger Woods itinerary:

Sunday, win at Torrey Pines.

Monday, day off at Las Vegas.

Tuesday, ... well, whatever it was, it wasn’t “practice at Riviera.”

Woods, who begins his practice round at 6:40 a.m. today, chose not to visit the driving range, which is understandable after the rigors of playing his first tournament since early December and winning the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

Woods has a 12:37 p.m. tee time Thursday and an 8:12 a.m. time Friday, playing in a threesome with David Duval and Robert Damron.

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Aaron Baddeley on the victory by Woods at Torrey Pines:

“I think having his knee surgery and a forced layoff is the best thing that could have happened to him. He’s played, what, six full years as a pro? He’s played a lot and had basically 10 weeks off. I’m sure now he’s feeling pretty refreshed coming back, so the knee surgery and the layoff was clearly a blessing in disguise.”

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Phil Tataurangi played the first two rounds with Woods at the Buick and missed the cut. But that was long enough for Tataurangi to realize that Woods was up to something special, even though it was his first tournament of the year after knee surgery.

“I saw it coming around,” Tataurangi said. “He missed a few shots, wasn’t driving the ball as well as he would have liked, but he hit the right shot at the right time. I could see that he was playing his way in [with] his feel and his touch.”

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It’s a $6-million tournament, so it’s got that going for it, but there is one thing that stands between the Accenture match-play event and true success, according to Michael Campbell.

“No disrespect to the players who have won it before, but they haven’t had the top player win it,” Campbell said. “That’s what the sponsors want, someone like Tiger. That’s what will bump up the status of the tournament.”

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Watch the gallery following Esteban Toledo. The Irvine resident is a supporter and contributor to “Get A Grip Foundation,” an Orange County youth group, and 45 kids are going to follow Toledo on the course.

They’ll be easy to recognize, all wearing “Holy Toledo” T-shirts.

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Tataurangi is ranked 66th and one spot out of next week’s $6-million match-play event, unless someone pulls out. When Toru Taniguchi of Japan withdrew because of a leg injury, that let in No. 65, Robert Karlsson of Sweden, who becomes the 64th and last seeded player. Players have until 2 p.m. Friday to commit to the event, so there’s still a chance for Tataurangi.

“I’m hoping my number is up,” he said.

Make that comes up.

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John Ray Leary, Jeff Sanday, Joe Acosta and Brenden Pappas qualified for the Nissan Open by finishing in the top four of Tuesday’s qualifying round at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills.