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Again the Buick had the same beginning that most of Woods other wins have had. Tiger plays OK in the first round while some fairy-tale story makes the first round headlines, in this case it was first year pro Brandt Snedeker who played his first ten holes in ten under par, going on to shoot 61. By the second day Snedeker was still the news while Woods was just waiting in the wings, again maybe he doesn't want to waste his best efforts to a low audience watching on the Golf Channel. No too ways about it, Tiger likes to get the maximum amount of exposure he can, which means doing it on a network.
In the third round while most of the leaders were trying to figure out how to shoot even par, Woods shot a bogey-free 69. Again just like the movie "Capricorn Open" all of this seems written by a script writer instead of live, hard to believe that someone could play this well, when it counts.
Sunday morning dawned just like the 13 other Sundays that Woods didn't have the lead but won anyway. Someone else had control of the tournament, in this case it was Snedeker and Andrew Buckle. In the long run Buckle would take the lead halfway through the round but follow the script perfectly that showed off how inexperiece grabbed hold of Buckle who went on to shot 72 and fall back. The same with Snedeker, he was only able to shot 74-71 over the weekend and will have to wait for another day for that dream win.
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This is what makes Woods the all-time best, when this happens to most of the other pro's on the PGA Tour they just fold their tents and hope to make it in and get a good check. But for Woods things are different and it showed. Woods hit an iron to within five feet at eight and made birdie, then he hit the par 5 ninth in two and drained a 26-footer for eagle to get a share of the lead. From there on he just needed to put it into overdrive, he made a birdie at 13 and then 17 to help him win.
Again, nothing fancy but it did take some fancy wedge play on 11, 14 and 15 to help save par. All along while he was playing his own game, everyone around him were making bogeys. First to fall was Snedeker, who bogeyed four, birdied nine and then a bogey at the 12th hole. Next was Buckle, who after taking the lead with a birdie at 10 made a double at 12 followed by bogeys at 15, 16 and 17. Charles Howell III, who played the final round with Woods didn't help his cause with a bogey at the first and it seemed like a lost cause with a bogey at the 11th. But he fought back with birdies at 12, 13 and 15 and if he could of make one more at 16 or 17 could of been a factor with Woods. Still Howell hung on for his 2nd runner-up finish of the short year.
For Woods it was another big win and made folks wonder, if he was really that good and if there is anyone around that can beat him.
Keys to victory for Woods
If you had to pick any one shot that Tiger had this week that was the key to victory, it had to be his lob shot at the 11th on Sunday to save par. From just off the green, Woods opened up his sand wedge and flipped one over a bunker and got it to stop within 5 feet, then made the putt. In comparison, the same kind of shot led to the demise of Andrew Buckle. At the time he was a co-leader and had a little flop shot third at the 12th, hit it over the green which led to a double-bogey six.
Here are some other keys for his victory:
- Had three eagles, tied for most of the week.
- His 317.3 driving average was 2nd best
- Over the weekend he was 9 of 10 in scrambling. For the week he was 12 of 17 the tenth best.
- For the week Woods had 29 one-putts and only 1 three putt which came on Thursday. But another key to his win was on Sunday he made 17 of 18 putts from 10 feet in. The only miss was a 6-footer at the 7th hole which caused his only bogey of the weekend.
- Tiger Woods scoring average at the Buick Invitational is 68.46 and his progressive round-by-round scoring average gets better by the round -- 69.67, 68.22, 68.00 and 67.875. Tiger Woods' 66 on Sunday marked the 22nd consecutive round at par-or-better in the Buick Invitational. Woods' only above-par score in 39 total rounds dating back to 1998 is a second-round 77 in 2002. Woods has never finished worse that T10 in his ten career starts in this event.
Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 26 of 56 ..... (55th) Driving average: 317.3 ..... (2nd) Greens hit: 55 of 72 ....... (T5th) Putts: 116 (29.00 a rd) .... (T22nd) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 0 1-putt greens: 29 2-putt greens: 42 3-putt greens: 1 Play on par 3s: +1 Play on par 4s: -5 Play on par 5s: -11 Eagles: 3 Birdies: 15 ................ (T34th) Scrambling: 12 of 17 (70.59%) (10th)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
What This Win Means for Woods
- Wins his first start of the season for the fifth time in his career. Dating back to his first full year on the PGA Tour in 1997, Tiger Woods has never finished outside of the top 10 in his first start of the season, including five victories - 1997 and 2000 Mercedes Championships and 2003, 2006 and 2007 Buick Invitational. His highest finish was a T10 at the 2001 Mercedes Championships.
- The Buick Invitational is the third tournament he has captured five times and 15th career event with multiple victories. Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus each have at least five victories in three different tournaments.
- Tiger's home state of California has sure been good to him, he has won 11 times and $9.25 million dollars.
- Tiger's main sponsors are Nike, American Express, Accenture and Buick. He also had a small deal with Disney to play in the Tiger Shootouts and Skins game. Of his 55 wins on tour, 15 of them have been with companies like the one's he has dealings with.
- Tiger Woods now has 55 PGA Tour wins which places him about two/thirds of the way towards Sam Snead's career victory mark of 82. Woods achieved his 55th win at the age of 31 years, 29 days. In comparison, Sam Snead's 55 PGA Tour win came in the 1950 Western Open when he was 37 years, 11 months and 25 days old putting Woods on a pace of beating Snead before his 37th birthday
- Marks the 17th time he has successfully defended a title and the second time he has defended at the Buick Invitational. He is the first player to defend a title in 2007.
