US Tour Nissan Open: There is a rapidly-reducing list of things Tiger Woods still has to do in golf, but one is to win the Nissan Open in Los Angeles. Another is to start a season with three successive victories.

The world number one can achieve both at Riviera Country Club this week following his play-off wins over Jose Maria Olazabal at the Buick Invitational and then Ernie Els in the Dubai Desert Classic.

Woods tied with Billy Mayfair at this event in 1998, but suffered what remains his only play-off defeat on the US Tour. Then, 12 months later, he finished second again.

It was Els who beat him then, and the South African is in the field this week for what will be his first tournament in America since the US Open last June.

Woods has not won three titles in a row since 2001 (the Bay Hill Invitational, Players Championship and Masters), but the worrying thing for all his rivals is that he was nowhere near his best either at Torrey Pines or in the Middle East.

He finished "only" 13th at Riviera a year ago, although the event was reduced to two rounds because of torrential rain.

Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell have been drawn to play together, with Rocco Mediate making up their threeball.

But most American eyes, naturally, will be on Woods and how the US Tour's two latest first-time winners - big-hitting rookie JB Holmes and Arron Oberholser - measure up.

Qualifying school-winner Holmes won by seven in Phoenix two weeks ago, and Oberholser by five at Pebble Beach on Sunday. Swede Henrik Stenson, the only European to win a tournament so far this year, will be looking to continue his fine form.