Dominant Woods cruises to 62nd PGA Tour victory

SAN DIEGO, California: Tiger Woods shrugged off three consecutive bogeys while cruising to an eight-shot victory at the Buick Invitational on Sunday for his 62nd PGA Tour title.

Eight ahead of the field overnight in his first tournament of the year, the world No 1 holed two monster birdie putts on his way to a 1-under-par 71 in increasingly windy conditions on the South Course at Torrey Pines.

Woods piled up five birdies and four bogeys for a 19-under total of 269 to record a fourth successive triumph at the coastal venue and his sixth overall.

Japan's Ryuji Imada birdied the last two holes for a 67 to finish a distant second at 11 under, two ahead of South Africa's Rory Sabbatini (67) and American Stewart Cink (73).

"The whole idea today was to go out and shoot something under par and not make any bogeys, but I got half of that right," Woods told reporters after winning his opening PGA Tour event of the season for the sixth time in 12 years.

"Even though I didn't drive the ball particularly well this week, I still was able to do what I was able to do, which was nice.

"I think we are all pleased to get this thing in," Woods added, as the rain and wind intensified at Torrey Pines.

His margin of victory shattered the previous tournament best of five set by fellow American Tom Watson in 1977 and equaled by Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

In winning his 62nd title, Woods joined Arnold Palmer in fourth place in the all-time standings for PGA Tour career victories.

Only Sam Snead (82), Jack Nicklaus (73) and Ben Hogan (64) have won more.

"I congratulate Tiger," Palmer said in a statement issued by the PGA Tour.

"I'm sure that there are many, many more coming in the future. There isn't any question about that."

Leading player

With the bad weather forecast for Sunday not materializing until late in the day, the only question on the lips of fans crammed around the course was the margin of Woods' victory.

The game's leading player has never lost a tournament when leading by more than one shot after 54 holes.

Eight times he has gone into the final round of a PGA Tour event with a cushion of more than six strokes, and he has won by at least five shots on all eight occasions.

Woods made an ideal start in bright sunshine when he rolled in a 40-foot birdie putt at the par-4 first.

Moments later, his lead was stretched to 10 when his two playing partners, Cink and fellow American Joe Durant, both bogeyed the hole.

Although Woods narrowly missed a seven-foot birdie opportunity at the fourth, he birdied the par-5 sixth after hitting his third shot to four feet.

He collected his first bogey at the par-4 seventh, after missing the fairway off the tee, but did well to save par at the ninth when he got up and down from rough behind the green.

Out in 1-under 35, he electrified the watching gallery when he sank a 58-foot birdie putt on the 11th green where he allowed for around 15 feet of break.

He lifted his putter to acknowledge the roars from the crowd before pumping his right fist in celebration.

Woods also birdied the par-5 13th by getting up and down from a greenside bunker before surprisingly dropping shots on the next three holes.

He bogeyed 14 by three-putting, overhit the green with his approach on 15 and failed to reach the putting surface off the tee at the par-3 16th.

As the winds strengthened and the predicted thunderstorm approached, he parred 17 before signing off with a birdie at the last where he hit his third shot to nine feet and calmly holed the putt.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/29/2008 page22)