LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods is roaring into the new year, preparing to play four times in five weeks in his return to the PGA Tour after a 15-month absence. One of his stops includes a return to his hometown tournament in Los Angeles, where he made his first start on the pro tour as a skinny 16-year-old.

Woods has stayed away from Riviera, which hosts the newly renamed Genesis Open next month, since 2006. He loves the venerable course nestled in a posh residential neighborhood overlooking the Pacific Ocean, but has never won there.

And that led him to avoid it.

“I’ve just never played it well,” he said Monday as occasional rain pelted the already soggy course. “That’s the only reason.”

Woods debuted at Riviera in 1992 on a sponsor’s exemption. The teenager shot 72-75 to miss the cut.

“I felt fine on that first tee but as I took the club back, I never felt nerves like that,” he recalled. “I was skinny. I looked like a 1-iron. I didn’t weigh a lot. I had a lot of speed.”

Woods birdied his first hole and thought to himself: “That’s how you want to start off your PGA Tour career.”

On his second hole, his shot smacked a fence and soon the teenager was 17 shots behind Davis Love III, who lost to Fred Couples in a playoff. “I have so far to go,” Woods recalled thinking. “I’m not that good.”

But by 1997, he was Masters champion and well on his way to winning 79 PGA Tour career titles.