Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - PGA TOUR - BUICK INVITATIONAL, Torrey Pines (North & South Courses), San Diego, California - Tiger Woods will make his first start of the 2008 season at the Buick Invitational, which he has won five of the last nine years.

Last year, Woods won his third consecutive Buick Open -- and seventh PGA Tour start in a row -- with a 66 in the final round to beat Charles Howell III by two shots.

Woods hasn't played an official event since winning the Tour Championship by eight shots in September, a victory that clinched the world No. 1 the first- ever FedEx Cup and its $10 million top prize.

He took the longest break of his career -- more than three months -- before returning to beat an elite field at his Target World Challenge in December.

Woods is 5-1 in his last six starts overall -- official and non-official -- since a stretch of five non-wins beginning with last year's Players Championship and ending at the British Open.

This is the first of two events to be staged at Torrey Pines this season. The San Diego-area course will be the second publicly-owned course to host the U.S. Open in June, when it will become the longest course in U.S. Open history.

Also returning this week will be Phil Mickelson, who has won three Buick Invitationals in his career: the first in 1993, then back-to-back in 2000-01.

This is the first event of the season that the Golf Channel will not cover exclusively. CBS will have the final two rounds. Next week is the FBR Open, which was won by Aaron Baddeley last year.

EUROPEAN TOUR

QATAR MASTERS, Doha Golf Club, Doha, Qatar - This week's Qatar Masters is billed as having the strongest field in the tournament's 11-year history.

Retief Goosen overtook Nick O'Hern with a birdie-eagle finish last year to claim his only win of the season. He finished atop a talented leaderboard that saw 2005 champion Ernie Els, Stuart Appleby, 2006 winner Henrik Stenson, Chris DiMarco, Paul McGinley, Nick Dougherty, Sergio Garcia, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Robert Karlsson all finish in the top 25.

World No. 8 Adam Scott, the 2002 champion, is the highest-ranked player in a field that includes 10 of the top 30 players in the world.

The Golf Channel will have coverage of all four rounds this week beginning at 9:30 a.m. (ET). Next week is the Dubai Desert Classic, which was won by Henrik Stenson last year. Tiger Woods, the 2006 winner, is scheduled to play.

CHAMPIONS TOUR

TURTLE BAY CHAMPIONSHIP, Turtle Bay (Palmer Course), Kahuku, Hawaii - Coming off a win Sunday at the MasterCard Championship -- and a 10th-place finish at the PGA Tour's Sony Open the week before -- Fred Funk will make his third consecutive start in Hawaii as the defending champion at the Turtle Bay Championship.

Funk won last year's Turtle Bay Championship with back-to-back 64s on the weekend, running away with a 11-shot victory over five other players.

His two-shot win over Allen Doyle on Sunday at Hualalai counted as the 51- year-old Funk's third title in three years on the Champions Tour. He has stated his intent to win $2 million on both tours this season, and with nearly $500,000 combined already in the bank, he's off to a good start.

The Golf Channel will have coverage of all three rounds this weekend. Next week is the Allianz Championship, which was won by Mark James last year.

NATIONWIDE TOUR

PANAMA MOVISTAR CHAMPIONSHIP, Panama Golf Club, Panama City, Panama - The Nationwide Tour season begins, as usual, outside of the United States.

The Panama Movistar Championship is the first of 30 scheduled events for the 19th season of the Nationwide Tour. It will be one of five tournaments played outside the U.S. this year.

Last year's event was won by Miguel Carballo, who will have a chance this week to become the first player to repeat as champion on the Nationwide Tour. Next week is the inaugural Mexico Open.