The defending champion and world No. 2, Mickelson has come close to winning in two starts this season.

“I played OK in my first week and I played better in Phoenix,” Mickelson said. “I feel like my game is improving.

“I’m looking forward to Pebble. I feel like I’m starting to play better each round as the year goes on and I expect to improve my play this week, too.”

He tied for sixth at the Buick Invitational and rallied from four-shots off the pace on Sunday before losing to J.B. Holmes.

Despite coming up empty in his first two events, Mickelson has been on his game. Five of his last six rounds have been 68 or better and he is coming to the perfect event to keep his hot streak going.

The defending champion, Mickelson has won this event three times.

Last year he was tied for the lead after each of the first three rounds before firing a closing 66 to finish five strokes clear of Kevin Sutherland.

Mickelson is also still feeling the sting of finishing second last week.

“It’s disappointing because that tournament has a special place in my heart and I love playing there,” said Mickelson, an Arizona native.

“I love coming out and doing well and I would have loved to have won it again.”

Tiger Woods is skipping the event after winning his second straight tournament of the season in Dubai on Sunday. That leaves Mickelson as the highest-ranked player in the field and he will be joined by Davis Love, reigning British Open champion Padraig Harrington, Jim Furyk, Holmes and Vijay Singh.

American Love, who has not played any golf since the end of September due to a severe left-ankle injury, is making his season debut.

Harrington is playing in just his third tournament in the last 10 weeks. And despite being a major champion, the Irishman again is re-tooling his swing as he makes his season debut on the PGA Tour.

“You would think winning a major would mellow you,” he said.

“It’s done the opposite to me. It’s made me even more obsessive.

“There’s a huge incentive to push on. I don’t think I have that attitude of some guys who are trying to prove they deserved to win it. But I certainly have the attitude that I really want to win another.

“It would have been nice to chill out and take some of the glory of it all and be confident.But that’s not the way my system works.”

Greg Norman also is in the field this week and will be making his first PGA Tour start since the 2006 International.

“It’s great to be back,” Norman said. “I haven’t played here since 1992 and I can say that the golf course is by far the best I’ve ever seen it.”