Keith Nolan found that the journey from Pebble Beach to San Diego was well worthwhile. Originally only the first alternate for the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Nolan discovered that he was officially in the tournament only after arriving at the course outside San Diego on Monday night.

Unfortunately, the atrocious weather of last week had followed both Nolan and Richard Coughlan the 500 miles down the California coast, and all practice on Tuesday was washed out. With a pro-am scheduled yesterday on both the North and South courses, which are used here for the first two rounds, the pair were unable to get any worthwhile practice in before the tournament began.

"We are going to try to walk both courses and take the yardage books out with us to see what we have", said Coughlan, as he and his caddy prepared to go to the driving range yesterday.

"It's just so disappointing. It's very hard to know what the ball is going to do around the greens. I'll just have to go with the feel that I have.

"I have never seen so much rain. Its surprising and I certainly wasn't expecting this in California," he continued. "I saw Keith yesterday and he's in the tournament, so good for him. It's a chance to make some official money at last."

Nolan was also planning to walk both courses. "I am going to walk the wrong way around starting at the 18th, as that way you can visualise the holes better. I am just going to hit some balls and hit some putts. That's all we can do if it doesn't rain before now and then."

Tiger Woods, who first played here when he won the World Junior Open title at the age of 15 in 1991, is back for the first time at La Jolla as a professional. "I am looking forward to playing the North course as I missed the scenery by not playing it before," said Woods. "Last week was a tough week. I struggled with my putting and didn't make anything.

"My game is better than at this time last year as overall it's more sound. I will play again on the West coast before the tour moves to Florida in the run-up to the Masters as I need to get more rounds in."

Sandy Lyle plays for the third week in a row, still without any money to show for his efforts after last week's wash out at Pebble Beach and having missed the cut in Phoenix.