Buick Invitational Wrapup
What do Chris Dimarco Jim Furyk, Shaun Micheel, Stewart Cink, Vijay Sing, Ian Poulter, Adam Scott and Charles Howell III all have in common? Aside from being top golfers, they are the runner-ups to Tiger Woods on his current seven tournament winning streak on the PGA Tour.
In those seven tournaments, Tiger was 124 strokes under par, won by an average of three strokes a tournament, and collected two more majors, bringing him to a total of 12.
Six years ago San Diego was the site that ended Tiger’s last winning streak. In 2000, Tiger entered Torrey Pines winning his last six events on tour, but Phil Mickelson prevented him from winning his seventh consecutive tournament. This year at Torrey Pines, Phil did not prevent him from winning nor did anyone else. Tiger cruised to a final round 66, a two shot victory, and his third consecutive Buick Invitational.
After Saturday’s round, the names on the leaderboard looked more familiar to that of a Nationwide tournament: Andrew Buckle, Brandt Snedeker, Jeff Quinney. All of those players held the lead one time during the tournament, but Tiger was merely stalking his prey.
Snedeker held the lead in the first three rounds, aided by a first round 61. His 61 and exuberant smile made him a fan favorite in San Diego. However, he could not retain his opening day momentum, finishing with rounds of 70, 74 and 71.
Buckle and Quinney both held leads on the back nine, but each carded double bogeys on that nine to eliminate themselves from contention.
Tiger’s only form of opposition came from Howell. Just as Snedeker, Buckle and Quinney were falling off; Howell began to challenge Tiger with a string of back nine birdies. Tiger stretched his lead against Howell to two shots entering the 18th hole. Howell made the green in two, while Tiger chose to lay up. Seeing a rare misstep from Tiger, he hit his approach to the 18th green short and almost saw it spin back into the greenside lake. It didn’t. Howell missed his chance to tie Tiger and Tiger did what else? Win.
Last week, Tiger looked to be at the top of his game. The only way the other members of the PGA Tour will be able to rival Tiger is to rival his desire to win, if they don’t do that then Tiger could be entering an area of dominance that Jack Nicklaus, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky never experienced.
This week the PGA Tour is in Scottsdale, Arizona for the FBR Open. Check-in with hookedongolf.com all this week for coverage and results.
