Woods Wins Buick Invitational, Opens Year With a Statement

In his most dominant start to a season, Woods built an 11-shot lead Sunday until his game and the fickle weather turned cold on the back nine. A birdie on the last hole gave him a 1-under 71 and an eight-shot victory, giving him 62 for his career to tie Arnold Palmer on the PGA Tour list.

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

Just like there was no question about the outcome.

Woods opened with a 40-foot birdie putt, threw in a 60-foot birdie just to keep a four-deep gallery from falling asleep, and only looked mortal when he made three straight bogeys toward the end of his round.

All that did was affect the final margin, not the name on the trophy.

Woods finished at 18-under 270 to win the Buick Invitational for the fourth consecutive year, tying a PGA Tour record for consecutive wins in a single tournament. Woods is the only player to own such a streak at two events, having also won four in a row at Bay Hill.

Ryudi Imada matched the best score of the final round with a 67 and was the runner-up.

Woods returns to Torrey Pines in June for the U.S. Open, and if this week was any indication, it could be another long week for his peers. The world's No. 1 player now has won six times as a pro at Torrey Pines, and his comment that the Grand Slam is "easily within reason" looked every bit of that.

"What he's going to do is screw the U.S. Open up for everyone else," Fred Couples said. "If he had shot 10 or 11 under, the USGA would have said, 'Well, maybe we have it in the right spot.' Now, they may have to regroup a little."

Then again, it might not matter.

Woods has won his last two PGA Tour events by eight shots, and this was the ninth time in his career he has won by at least eight.

"I wanted to go out there and make no bogeys and shooting something under par," Woods said. "I got half of it right."

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