Tiger Woods cruised to victory on his first appearance of the season - pulling
away American from rival Phil Mickelson and the rest of the field at the Buick
Invitational in California.
Playing competitively for the first time since undergoing knee surgery in
December, Woods began the day with a one-stroke lead but won by four after
shooting a four-under-par 68 in La Jolla.
Thanks to two typically brilliant shots, Woods led by at least four shots over
the final seven holes.
The world number one earned his 35th career win in just over six seasons on
the PGA Tour and improved to 27-2 when leading after 54 holes.
Woods said: "I couldn't have asked for a better start.
"One, to have played 72 holes without being sore, which is a big positive.
And to have won the tournament is another big positive."
Mickelson played with Woods and Brad Faxon in the final threesome but never
got closer than two strokes, parring the first 10 holes and bogeying the next
two to fall seven shots off the pace.
He settled for an even-par 72.
Ranked third in the world to Woods and Ernie Els, Mickelson did little to help
his reputation, which has taken a hit over the past couple of weeks following
his critical comments of Woods' equipment.
Faxon started the day just a stroke back but bogeyed the first hole and never
got closer than two the rest of the day, also carding a 72.
His playing partners were not the only ones who failed to put any pressure on
Woods, who led by at least four shots after he birdied the 11th hole.
Woods showed no ill effects in his left knee, finishing at 16 under par on
272.
Even with Torrey Pines' South Course revamped for the 2008 US Open, he fell a
stroke off matching the most decisive win in tournament history.
Carl Pettersson of Sweden claimed second place on 12 under at 276 after
carding a 69.
He was playing in just his sixth career PGA Tour event.
Faxon finished third on 277, a stroke better than Mickelson, Briny Baird and
rookie Arron Oberholser.
Collated final scores (US unless stated)
272 Tiger Woods 70 66 68 68
276 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69 68 70 69
277 Brad Faxon 70 64 71 72
278 Phil Mickelson 69 68 69 72, Briny Baird 70 65 72 71, Arron Oberholser 65
70 72 71
279 Marco Dawson 68 66 76 69, Mark Calcavecchia 71 68 71 69, Charles Howell
III 74 68 68 69, Luke Donald (Gbr) 69 70 71 69, Jonathan Kaye 68 67 72 72
280 Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 70 73 67
281 Craig Perks (Nzl) 70 71 69 71, Dennis Paulson 68 67 73 73, Ben Crane 71 68
70 72, Fred Couples 69 68 70 74
282 Steven Alker (Nzl) 69 67 70 76
283 Joey Sindelar 70 71 73 69, Cameron Beckman 68 74 72 69, Spike McRoy 67 71
72 73
284 Brent Geiberger 72 69 72 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 73 70 70 71, Jay Haas
73 69 70 72, Tom Lehman 71 71 69 73, Skip Kendall 66 73 72 73, Per-Ulrik
Johansson (Swe) 72 68 75 69, Dave Stockton Jr 72 69 70 73
285 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 73 65 72 75, Paul Stankowski 71 69 71 74, Kirk
Triplett 69 71 71 74, Bob Tway 68 68 74 75, Doug Barron 69 72 74 70, Bob Estes
74 69 69 73, Fred Funk 71 64 74 76, Len Mattiace 74 67 68 76, Brett Quigley 70
69 74 72
286 Joel Kribel 69 71 71 75, Cliff Kresge 69 72 74 71, Chris Riley 72 67 72
75, Alex Cejka (Ger) 73 70 70 73, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 69 72 73 72, Ken Green 74
67 73 72, Neal Lancaster 71 65 75 75
287 Brenden Pappas (Rsa) 73 70 75 69, Brian Watts (Can) 69 71 72 75, Dean
Wilson 66 71 75 75, JJ Henry 75 67 70 75, David Berganio Jr 73 70 73 71, Paul
Goydos 74 67 72 74
288 Kenichi Kuboya (Jpn) 72 67 74 75, Pat Perez 69 71 73 75, Jonathan Byrd 72
71 73 72, Todd Fischer 72 70 73 73, Jeff Brehaut 70 73 70 75, Woody Austin 73 69
75 71, Donnie Hammond 70 70 76 72
289 John Morgan (Gbr) 67 72 74 76, John Senden (Aus) 72 68 75 74, Thomas Levet
(Fra) 69 72 74 74, Anthony Painter (Aus) 73 69 75 72, Larry Mize 68 73 72 76,
Corey Pavin 75 68 70 76
290 Scott Laycock (Aus) 77 66 72 75, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 71 71 77 71, Tom
Gillis 71 71 75 73, Kevin Sutherland 74 69 74 73
291 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 75 68 74 74
292 Jose Coceres (Arg) 72 68 73 79, Gene Sauers 74 68 78 72
293 Heath Slocum 71 72 73 77, Steve Flesch 71 69 75 78
294 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 73 70 78 73, Steve Jones 71 69 75 79
300 Notah Begay III 75 67 74 84
DQ Darren Clarke (Gbr)
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