Host with the most sits it out

The Chevron World Challenge is, well, a bit less challenging for its 16 golfers this year because tournament host Tiger Woods isn’t playing.

As the field tees off today in the opening round of the four-day event, Woods is still recovering from knee surgery that he had after winning the U.S. Open in June -- his 14th major tournament win.

Given that Woods won four of the previous nine Challenge events, including three of the last four, prospects for this year’s players are distinctly brighter at the par-72 Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

But “there’s 15 other great players playing this week,” said Luke Donald, the only other golfer to win the event in the last four years with his victory in 2005.

Donald also needed surgery this year, on his wrist, and is just now returning to competitive play. “I sympathize with [Woods] a little bit more now,” Donald said.

The field includes 12 of the sport’s top players this season, including Vijay Singh, Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas, and four invited players such as former Masters winner Fred Couples.

The winner gets $1.35 million out of a total purse of $5.75 million, and proceeds from the tournament benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation.

Woods, meanwhile, is gradually working his knee -- and his game -- back into shape. He hopes to play in a tournament or two before the Masters in April, but his return will depend on how fast he recovers.

“It’s been a little rough at times, but [I’m] getting through it,” he said. “The ligament is only going to heal so fast.”

Woods added said he’s not yet hitting full shots with all of his clubs and “my game isn’t ready for public consumption.

“For me not to play, it is frustrating,” he said. “I want to be out there and competing and trying to mix it up with the boys, but it is what it is.”

While the Challenge golfers will sidestep Woods this year on the 7,027-yard Sherwood course, they’re running into another obstacle -- unseasonably cold weather.

Temperatures were expected to reach only the mid-50s today and conditions were even worse for the event’s pro-am round Wednesday, when gusty winds and showers made it seem more like the British Open than a Southern California invitational.

“This is unbelievable,” Woods said of the weather. Then he wryly added with a smile: “We wish it could have been better than this, but, hey, I’m not playing.”

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james.peltz@latimes.com