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More players with local ties seem to win the Buick Invitational than any other event. Tiger Woods (four victories, including two in a row) gets most of the ink, but other golfers with Southern California locations on their résumés to have won at Torrey Pines include Phil Mickelson (three times), Steve Pate (twice), Scott Simpson, Craig Stadler and Mark O'Meara in recent times, as well as Gene Littler and Billy Casper in the 1950s and 1960s.

Perhaps locals get the lucky bounces at beautiful La Jolla, but more likely they're more familiar with the native grasses on the putting surfaces and how to control their ball with the ocean winds blowing onto the courses on the bluffs above the Pacific. But this year, as Torrey Pines' South Course continues its alteration into a U.S. Open venue (it measures a whopping tour-longest 7,568 yards and yielded the fifth-toughest scoring average at 73.69 in 2006), the grass on the fairways has been almost completely replaced with Kikuyu; the greens are mostly Poa annua.

Because some bent grass remains embedded, putting could be at a premium this week. More important, the drought in the San Diego area and the relatively cold temperatures this winter have limited the courses' ability to grow rough. This naturally will benefit a longer hitter who isn't necessarily accurate. A bomber who can putt stands a good chance.

There are some obvious candidates in the field, but before we get to that, I thought I'd see who were the best putters on tour among the longest hitters in 2006. I took a player's year-end rank in distance and added it to his year-end rank in putts per GIR to come up with a total bomb-and-tap number. As with the tour's all-around rank, the lower the better. Here are the 10 lowest figures among players in the Buick Invitational field:

Best putters on tour?
Player	Distance rank	Putts per GIR rank	Total points
1. Phil Mickelson	17	5	22
2. Harrison Frazar	9	16	25
3. Daniel Chopra	29	1	30
4. Charley Hoffman	10	28	38
5. Tiger Woods	6	35	41
6. Jonathan Byrd	33	19	52
7. Brett Wetterich	4	62	66
8. Lucas Glover	23	49	72
9. Eric Axley	61	16	77
10. Robert Allenby	64	14	78

What a surprise! Phil and Tiger rank in the top five. I'll bet you didn't see that coming. OK, seriously, how many of you thought Frazar (best Buick finish a T-10 in 2001) or Glover (fourth last year) would be on this list? Or Hoffman, the San Diego kid who won last week's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic?

Another thing in favor of the long hitters this week is the fact the North Course (which will co-host the tournament's first two rounds) had the fourth-easiest par-5 greens to hit in regulation and the second-easiest par-4 greens to hit on tour last year. The tables are turned, however, on the South Course, which had the fifth-toughest par-4 greens and the third-toughest par-3 greens to hit in regulation in 2006.

Anybody on the list above would be a safe bet this week, but if you pick someone other than Woods, it's likely you're only doing so because you want to save him for a tournament with a bigger payday. Consider his career at the Buick Invitational. In nine appearances, Woods has four wins, one second, one third, one fourth, one fifth and one 10th. Count them, folks. That's nine top-10s. Of his 35 rounds (the tournament was shortened to three rounds in 1998), Woods has one round over par (a second-round 77 in 2002, when he eventually finished T-5), three rounds at par (one each of the past three years, including in his '06 and '05 wins) and 24 rounds in the 60s. Scores have been getting higher at Torrey Pines ever since they began to toughen up the South Course several years back, but Tiger continues to go low. Come Sunday night, you likely will be looking at a seven-event tour win streak.

Lucas Glover: Because I plan to take Woods in my league when more money is on the line, I'm going to offer up four other choices. And Glover seems like the safest bet. A long hitter with a good touch who played well in 2006, the Clemson Tiger can take his career to the next level if he ends Woods' win streak. It can be done. Glover shot four-subpar rounds a year ago and is coming off a good finish at last week's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Justin Rose: He's not from SoCal and he's not a bomber, but if not for the wind last Sunday the Hope, the Englishman likely would be coming to San Diego fresh off his first tour win. He missed the cut in his only try at the Buick but that doesn't bother me as much as his recent play impresses me. He won in Australia in November and should shrug off last week's final round as one of those weeks where the weather was the problem, not something mechanical with his form.

Charley Hoffman: Where better for the blond-haired surfer boy to affirm that last week's triumph was for real than in his hometown? Hoffman first played this tournament as an 18-year-old amateur in 1994 and made the cut as an amateur two years later. His best finish came a year ago when he shot a five-under 283 to finish T-16.

Jamie Lovemark: Don't pick him yourself, because this 19-year-old collegian, who Monday-qualified for the tournament, can't earn any cash. But the former Torrey Pines High School star has enough local knowledge to make the cut. He won't be eligible for FedEx Cup points, but he would certainly gain some respect on tour. That is, if he doesn't have enough already after making the cut and beating, among others, Phil Mickelson and John Daly at the Cialis Western Open a year ago.

John Antonini is a senior editor for Golf World magazine.