The New York Times-20080128-In Resounding Win- Woods Renews Attack On the Record Book

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In Resounding Win, Woods Renews Attack On the Record Book

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Tiger Woods began his 2008 season by once again opening the golf history books and stepping inside. On a blustery Sunday at Torrey Pines Golf Course, Woods won the Buick Invitational by a tournament-record eight strokes for his 62nd PGA Tour victory, tying Arnold Palmer for fourth on the career list and moving within two wins of Ben Hogan.

Woods's final-round score of one-under-par 71 on the South Course at Torrey Pines gave him his sixth Buick Invitational title and his fourth in a row. His 72-hole total of 19 under par won by eight strokes over Ryuiji Imada, who shot 67 Sunday, and was nine strokes better than Rory Sabbatini and Stewart Cink, who tied for third.

Palmer, 78, was among the first to congratulate Woods, sending a statement prepared earlier in the day at Bay Hill Golf Club, where he was playing golf.

I congratulate Tiger, he said. I'm sure that there are many, many more coming in the future. There isn't any question about that. I wish him all the luck in the world.

Woods's eight-stroke victory picked up where he left off in his last appearance of 2007, when he won the Tour Championship by the same margin. In fact, Woods's streak of amazing play stretches back to August, a period during which he has won five of six tournaments and finished second in the other.

Just as in his great season of 2000, when he won nine tournaments, including three major championships, Woods begins the season with a victory. And like that season's second victory at Pebble Beach, the win here at Torrey Pines takes place at a venue that will also play host to the United States Open in the same year.

While contemplating that, and the fact that Woods had bogeyed only 2 of 67 holes until he ran into a three-bogey stretch on the back nine, consider something else.

I'm starting to get better, Woods said. I'm hitting shots that I never could hit before, even in 2000. People think, Yeah, you played great, but I made everything in 2000. I'm actually hitting the ball better now than I did during that stretch.

Woods certainly is living up to his reputation as the greatest front-runner this side of Secretariat. He is 31 for 37 when he has at least a share of the lead after two rounds, and 42-3 when he starts the final round either tied or in the lead.

He started the day with a 40-foot putt for birdie and never looked back, demonstrating again he has as many ways to keep and build on a lead as there are beaten golfers lying in his wake. Two in particular stood out. First, he was lying behind the green on the par-5 ninth hole, his golf ball nestled in squishy rough 33 yards from the hole, which was cut four paces on. Degree of difficulty: 8.5.

Taking a three-quarter swing with his 60-degree wedge flayed open, Woods made the shot look easy. It parachuted in softly about three yards from the hole and rolled out to tap-in range. Par saved, nine-stroke lead maintained.

The second followed a mediocre iron shot into the 221-yard, par-3 11th hole that stopped on the right front portion of the green, 48 feet from the pin. Envision 15 feet of break from right to left coming off a ridge into the hole for birdie. Degree of difficulty: 8.5. Birdie made, lead back to 10 strokes.

While all this was going on, Sabbatini had eagled the 18th hole from 20 feet to put the finishing touches on a round of 67 that pulled him into a tie for third at 9 under par. Asked to assess Woods's play, Sabbatini was succinct.

He's playing well, you know? Sabbatini said. He came in here prepared and he's played consistently every day and, obviously, he's kind of been on cruise control today. When he's on cruise control, it's almost impossible to get him.

Even when the Woods machine slipped out of cruise control, it was impossible to get him. After birdieing the 13th to expand his lead briefly to 11 strokes and his under-par total to 21, Woods did what previously had been unthinkable: he made three straight bogeys, each more unsightly than the one preceding it.

He three-putted the 14th hole, running a 40-footer seven feet past the hole and missing the comebacker; he airmailed the 15th green into the greenside rough with a short iron from 136 yards, left the chip 10 feet short and missed that; he hit a 3-iron that fell out of the sky 10 yards short of the 227-yard 16th hole and failed to get up and down, missing a 7-foot par putt.

After the sudden and ugly three-hole spinout, Woods brought things back under control with a two-putt par at the 17th and, back in character, a birdie finish. It was raining sideways by then, but Woods's megawatt smile was back, his putter raised in triumph and the crowd roaring its approval.

I'm still getting better, he said. I still have holes in my game that I need to fix and need to improve on. I just think that what I've been working on, I'm headed in the right direction.

[Illustration]PHOTO: With his victory, Tiger Woods tied Arnold Palmer for fourth on the career list with 62 tour wins. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES)