Few tournaments have it better than the Buick Invitational when it comes to building excitement for a golf event every year.

For four straight years and six of the past 10, Tiger Woods has been the champion at Torrey Pines, which makes selling tickets and sky boxes considerably easier than if your winners are the likes of D.J. Trahan or Greg Kraft. (Yes, they were both champions this past season.)

Even in Woods' off years at Torrey, the Buick got the troubled but popular John Daly as its champ in '04 and hometown guy Phil Mickelson in 2000-01.

There aren't three better draws in golf than those guys.

This year, it's a little more complicated.

For weeks in its print and online advertisiing, the Century Club has featured 2009 Buick Invitational ads dominated by the image of Woods. The print ads have smaller photos of Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia, while some online ads promote only Woods.

As any golf fan who is paying attention knows, it appears highly unlikely Woods, who had knee surgery in June, will compete at Torrey Pines because he is only beginning to work through all of his shots in practice. (Garcia is not a given either, because he's probably playing in Dubai the week before.)

Is touting Woods so heavily for the Buick misleading?

"We always promote our defending champion, and we've been fortunate enough to have Tiger the last four years," said Tom Wilson, Century Club executive director and Buick tournament director. "When Daly won, we promoted him. When Mickelson won, we promoted him."

But those players were locks to defend. Woods is not.

"It's not totally out of the realm that he won't be here," Wilson said.

The Chargers have a better chance of playing in the Super Bowl, but hey, Wilson's not fibbing.

Woods has given no indication of when he might compete for the first time since winning the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. The world's best player is so organized I wouldn't be surprised if there's a red circle around a date in his mental calendar. But Woods also has insisted that there are too many variables to make a definitive decision now. Those include the progress of his knee, state of his game and the undisclosed due date for he and wife Elin's second baby. I understand the date to be late February.

The general feeling is that the Buick (Feb. 5-8), though scheduled later than last year, is still too soon for comfort. Woods may or may not reveal his plans when he holds the Buick defending champion's news conference via telephone Jan. 12 at Torrey Pines.

The Buick's thread of hope: Woods is keen on making history, and at Torrey Pines he could try to become the first player on the PGA Tour to win a single tournament five times in a row.

"You never know when it's going to be your last chance to try to do that," Wilson said. "It might help if that's in his thinking process."

The knee being his biggest concern, it's more likely Woods will wait until the WGC-Accenture Match Play in Arizona (Feb. 26-March 1), WGC-CA Championship at Doral (March 12-15) or Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill (March 26-29). He is the defending champ in the Match Play and Palmer.

The Masters, which weighs heavily in Woods' decision process, is April 9-12. Tour business down The Century Club holding on to the hope of Woods is understandable, especially in these tough economic times. Sports Business Journal reported last week that 10 of the 14 PGA Tour events in the first quarter of '09 are experiencing a decline in corporate sales compared to last year. Ticket sales are down at almost half the tournaments.

Wilson said Buick Invitational ticket sales, which account for about 20 percent of the tournament's revenue, were ahead of last year until November, "and it's slowed down substantially since then."

He said corporate hospitality sales also are down slightly, but some companies that have pulled back have been replaced by others. To the positive, the Saturday Pro-Am is sold out, Wilson said, and the Monday and Wednesday Pro-Ams are close to being full.

These down times provide a reminder of the incredible impact Woods has had on pro golf's business side. When Wilson took over as tournament director in 1993 — three years before Woods' debut — he said he put 10 corporate tents behind the 18th green and sold two. In recent years, 50 corporate hospitality areas have been available and selling well.

An executive sky box on the 18th hole, with plenty of perks, goes for $35,000. A corporate chalet on the 18th is $26,000. If some of the less popular areas don't sell this year, Wilson said, they simply won't be built.

Tod Leonard writes about golf for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Contact him at [email protected].