Golf Tour News: After almost 16 months spent in a kind of limbo without a strokeplay win on the US Tour, Tiger Woods chose Sunday - when he faced a marathon 31 holes in one day - to return to the winner's enclosure, claiming the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.
But, is the former world number one back to his best? Not yet, certainly not on this evidence.
In fairness to Woods, who has moved to the top of the US Tour's money list for the first time in 16 months and who intends to take a four-week break before resuming tournament play at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles, he accepted as much.
"I didn't hit it my best, there's no doubt about that," he said. "I wasn't feeling all that comfortable with my swing. But I was just kind of grinding around. I relied on my short game, which was beautiful."
In a way, Woods - who has closed the gap on Vijay Singh in the world rankings to 1.05 points - also relied on Tom Lehman, who hasn't won in five years and squandered a great chance to become the first active Ryder Cup captain to win on the US Tour since Jack Nicklaus at the 1986 US Masters.
Lehman hit every fairway on the back nine in the final round but couldn't press home that consistency and eventually bogeyed the last - to Woods' birdie - to finish in a three-way tie with Luke Donald and Charles Howell in second, three shots off the winner.
Donald had moved into the lead coming down the stretch, only to falter, coming in with a double-bogey six on the 14th - when he hit a six-iron approach over the back - and, then, a bogey on the 17th, where he pulled his drive into bushes. However, the Englishman has moved from 26th in the world rankings at the start of the year to a career 17th.
This was Woods' 41st win on the US Tour, but the one that probably brings a greater sense of relief than any other. Although he won the Dunlop Masters in Japan at the tail end of last season, when he underwent swing changes with coach Hank Hainey, and followed up by claiming the Target World Challenge, Woods had gone through the entire regular season on the US Tour without a strokeplay win, his only success coming in the Accenture Matchplay.
Still, that win in Japan was the catalyst for his strong start to the season which has seen him finish third in the Mercedes and now win at the Buick Invitational.
"It's hard to believe it's been that long to win on our (US) Tour, but it feels great. The big win for me was in Japan. To finally put all the pieces together and go over there and play that well and win, that solidified everything. And I felt, 'just continue what you're doing', and I've played well ever since.
"(During 2004), I had a bunch of things I needed to work on and try to solidify, and each and every day was a task to try to figure out what I needed to work on that particular day. But as the year progressed, the checklist got shorter and shorter. And consequently, results started improving towards the end of the year."
On Sunday, it culminated in Woods returning to familiar territory.
Not everything was perfect with this latest win from Woods, as was evidenced with his approach to the 72nd hole. At the time, he was one shot ahead of Lehman.
But, faced with a 240-yard approach to the green, and simply trying to find the right side of the green, his two-iron shot was extremely fortunate to avoid the water and find safety on the neck of the fairway short of the green.
"I absolutely whiffed it," he conceded. "Luckily, I hit it bad enough . . . as soon as I made contact, it was thin and hollow. I was hoping I would slice it over in the gallery somewhere. It kind of straightened out. But it ended up okay."
Lehman, who has failed to win his last seven tournaments when he had at least a share of the 54-hole lead, dating back to the Tour Championship at Southern Hills in 1996, then put his third shot - a seven-iron - into the front bunker and failed to find the green with his recovery.
By the time he attempted to hole his chip, the title was already Woods' as he had holed a downhill 18-footer for birdie to finish with a 68 for a total of 16-under-par 262.
The winner's cheque for $864,000 (€662,000) brought his season's winnings to $1,214,000 - the ninth straight season he has won over $1 million - and took his career total on the US Tour to over $46 million.
Interestingly, despite the amount of time they spent out on the course, neither Woods nor Lehman brought up the Ryder Cup at the K Club in 2006.
"We both were focusing on what we needed to do . . . we were out there as competitors and he's trying to beat my brains in and I'm trying to beat his in," remarked Woods, who nonetheless added that he felt his friend, Mark O'Meara, should have got the captain's job next time round.
"I felt Tom would be a great captain and is going to be a great captain, but I thought it was Mark's shot, especially in Ireland. It was his heritage . . . in my opinion, there are certain people for certain places."
Incidentally, world number one Singh finished out of the top-10 for the first time since he claimed that top spot in September, ending a streak of eight straight top-10s on the US Tour.
Meanwhile, three Irish players will make a return to competitive play in this week's Caltex Masters at the Laguna National course in Singapore. Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie and Damien McGrane are in the field, along with Gary Murphy, who played in South Africa last week. Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood are also using the tournament to make their seasonal debuts.
For McDowell, who is 55th in the world rankings, it marks an early-season campaign aimed at securing a spot in the world's top 50 which would earn an invitation to the US Masters in April.
As things stand, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke are in the Masters field, while Paul McGinley is one of just two of Europe's Ryder Cup players - the other being Montgomerie - who has not got a place at Augusta.
LEADING SCORES:
(US unless stated, par 72)
272 - Tiger Woods 69 63 72 68.
275 - Tom Lehman 62 67 73 73, Charles Howell 72 67 64 72, Luke Donald (Eng) 68 67 67 73.
277 - Bernhard Langer (Ger) 69 69 67 72.
278 - Pat Perez 66 69 72 71, Kevin Sutherland 68 66 72 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 65 71 71 71, Scott McCarron 72 65 72 69, Arron Oberholser 64 72 72 70.
279 - Jason Bohn 66 74 71 68, Jerry Kelly 68 71 73 67, Tom Gillis 68 68 72 71.
280 - Peter Lonard (Aus) 67 65 71 77, Dudley Hart 65 69 71 75, Robert Damron 70 68 73 69, Brett Quigley 69 71 70 70.
281 - Brandt Jobe 71 70 71 69, Bill Haas 71 66 74 70.
282 - Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 69 69 70 74, Bob Estes 72 70 71 69, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 66 73 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 72 64 75 71.
283 - James Driscoll 71 68 73 71, Zach Johnson 69 72 72 70, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 66 70 74 73, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 74 66 72 71, Vijay Singh (Fij) 71 69 68 75, Tommy Armour III 71 69 71 72. 1996 - Las Vegas Invitational, Walt Disney Classic.
1997 - Mercedes Championship, US Masters, Byron Nelson Classic, Western Open.
1998 - BellSouth Classic.
1999 - Buick Invitational, Memorial Tournament, Western Open, US PGA Championship, WGC-NEC Invitational, Walt Disney Classic, Tour Championship, WGC-American Express Championship.
2000 - Mercedes Championships, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Bay Hill Invitational, Memorial Tournament, US Open Championship, British Open Championship, US PGA Championship, WGC-NEC Invitational, Bell Canadian Open.
2001 - Bay Hill Invitational, Players' Championship, US Masters, Memorial Tournament, WGC-NEC Invitational.
2002 - Bay Hill Invitational, US Masters, US Open, Buick Open, WGC-American Express Championship.
2003 - Buick Invitational, WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship, Bay Hill Invitational, Western Open, WGC-American Express Championship.
2004 - WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship.
2005 - Buick Invitational.
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