Dustin Johnson begins season at the Humana Challenge

Dustin Johnson’s right knee is apparently feeling pretty good – good enough to begin his season this week.

Johnson had arthroscopic surgery on Nov. 29 to repair damaged cartilage in his right knee and initially intended to return to competitive golf at next week’s $6 million Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, according to his agent, David Winkle of Hambric Sports Management.

But the former Coastal Carolina University All-American and Myrtle Beach resident is entered in the $5.6 million Humana Challenge in partnership with the Clinton Foundation (the event was formerly known as the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic).

Johnson’s first round of the 2012 season tees off at 12:50 p.m. Eastern (9:50 a.m. at the PGA West Palmer Course) on Thursday in La Quinta, Calif. He’s playing in the opening round of the pro-am with amateur partner Jim Barnett, and is paired with Charles Howell III and his amateur partner Fred Schaeffer.

The tournament has a three-course rotation, so Johnson will move to La Quinta Country Club and the PGA West Nicklaus Course for the second and third rounds. He’s scheduled to be joined by amateur Dan Wolterman at 1:20 p.m. Eastern (10:20 Pacific) in the second round.

Johnson said Saturday through his Twitter account, shortly after being added to the field, that "This is something I was hoping to do and [rehab] has been going really well so I felt the Humana Challenge was a great event to come back!"

Johnson worked with swing coach Butch Harmon in Las Vegas on Monday before continuing on to the tournament site. He hasn’t played at PGA West for the past two seasons after tying for 12th in the Bob Hope as a rookie in 2008 and tying for 66th in 2009.

Johnson had reportedly been experiencing pain since last July, when he was a runner-up to Darren Clarke in the British Open.

He was expected to be on crutches for a week following the late November surgery, then resume chipping and putting, and be nearly full strength by late December. He said on Twitter on Jan. 5 that he was "still getting over the tail end" of his rehab.

Despite discomfort, Johnson won The Barclays in August to become the first player since Tiger Woods in 1999 to win in each of his first four years on the PGA Tour straight out of college. He has five career wins and more than $13.5 million in official earnings, not including $2.5 million for finishing in the top five in the FedEx Cup playoffs in each of the past two seasons.

"Man it feels good to be back," Johnson said Wednesday on Twitter.