I' not sure what you want to achieve as there seems to be some confusion: Title: cursor starts in the Google Search field, NOT the URL field.

I would like my cursor to start in the Google search field not the URL field

The Google website runs a script that automatically sets focus to its search bar, so if you want to set focus to the location/address bar instead then you would have to use another page as the home page (a new window opens with the home page) or possibly use a bookmark (on the Bookmarks Toolbar) set to about:blank and hold down the Shift key and left-click this bookmark to open a new window with that page.

Not with my system. Focus is to the URL with www.google.com. New tab, new page and upon open. Drives me crazy.

Does this also happen when you use the HTTPS protocol and open https://www.google.com instead of http://www.google.com ?