Round 3 Notes – Buick Invitational
Third-Round Notes – Saturday, January 26, 2008SATURDAY WEATHER:
Low: 48. High: 64. Winds: Variable 4-8 mph. Partly cloudy.
EXTENDED FORECAST:
Saturday night:
Rain and windy. Rain heavy at times. Winds: S 20-30 with gusts to 40 mph. Low:52
Sunday:
Morning rain likely. Scattered showers in the afternoon and a chance of Thunderstorm. Chance of precipitation 90 percent. High: 57F. Low: 52F. Winds: SSE 15-25 mph
Tiger Woods’ 66 on Saturday marked the 25th consecutive round at par-or-better in the Buick Invitational. Woods’ only above-par score in 42 total rounds dating back to 1998 is a second-round 77 in 2002. Woods has never finished worse that T10 in his ten career starts in this event.
Tiger Woods and Stewart Cink have both recorded only one bogey for the week at Torrey Pines. Woods posted a bogey on No. 16 on the South Course on Thursday, while Cink had a bogey at No. 4 on the South Course on Friday. There have been three bogey-free rounds at the South Course this week – Rod Pampling (1st), Stewart Cink (3rd) and Tiger Woods (3rd).
Tiger Woods has a 8-stroke lead over the field at the Buick Invitational. It is the eighth time he has entered the final round with a six-stroke or better lead. See leads below.
Strokes Final Rd
Tournament Lead after 54 holes won by Score
2000 U.S. Open 10 over Ernie Els 15 over Els, Jimenez 67
1997 Masters Tournament 9 over Costantino Rocca 12 over Kite 69
2000 WGC-NEC Invitational 9 over P. Mickelson, P. Price, H. Sutton 11 over Leonard, Price 67
2000 Memorial Tournament 6 over Steve Lowery 5 over Els, Leonard 70
2000 British Open Championship 6 over Thomas Bjorn, David Duval 8 over Bjorn, Els 69
2003 100th Western Open 6 over Robert Allenby, Cliff Kresge 5 over Beem 69
2006 WGC-AmEx Championship 6 over Adam Scott 8 over Poulter, Scott 67
In the history of the PGA TOUR below is a list of largest leads with 18 holes to play (strokes):
13 Bobby Locke, 1948 Chicago Victory National Championship (won by 16)
11 Gene Sarazen, 1927 Long Island Open (won by 11)
10 Walter Hagen, 1920 Florida West Coast Open (won by 12)
Ben Hogan, 1945 Portland Invitational (won by 14)
Gene Littler, 1955 Tournament of Champions (won by 13)
Tiger Woods, 2000 U.S. Open (won by 15)
In the last two years, Woods has won 15 of 31 starts (48.4 percent). Five different players (total of nine times) since 1970 have won seven or more times in a season. Woods has four of the nine.
The Southern California native has 11 wins in his home state just ahead of the 10 he has in his adopted state of Florida.
Woods has finished inside the top five of nine of 10 starts at Torrey Pines, with five wins during that time. He is in position to tie Arnold Palmer in total victories on the PGA TOUR with 62. Palmer’s last victory on the PGA TOUR was the 1973 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, 2 years, 10 months and 19 days before Woods was born.
All-time PGA TOUR Victories:
1) Sam Snead – 82; won 61st at the age of 39 years, 1 month, 6 days
2) Jack Nicklaus – 73; won 61st at the age of 36 years, 7 months, 15 days
3) Ben Hogan – 64; won 61st at the age of 40 years, 9 months, 11 days
4) Arnold Palmer – 62; won 61st at the age of 41 years, 10 months, 22 days
5) Tiger Woods – 61; won 61st at the age of 31 years, 8 months, 17 days
Tiger Woods is looking for his sixth Buick Invitational victory this week. He has six wins at both the World Golf Championships-CA Championship and World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. The record number of wins at a single PGA TOUR event is Sam Snead (8) at the Greater Greensboro Open.
Tiger Woods tournaments with five or more victories
Tournament Starts Cuts Made Top-10 Wins Years won
WGC-Bridgestone 9 9 9 6 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007
WGC-CA Championship 8 8 8 6 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007
Buick Invitational 10 10 10 5 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007
Tiger Woods Career Buick Invitational Scoring Average
Course Rounds Average
North 11 67.64
South 31 68.48
Tiger Woods and Stewart Cink are the only player left in the field who could post four rounds in the 60s this week. Since 1990, just 15 players have posted four rounds in the 60s at the Buick Invitational -- none have done so since 2001, when four players accomplished the feat: Frank Lickliter (T2), Mike Weir (T5), Jay Don Blake (T7) and Shigeki Maruyama (T13). It was the second time for Blake who also did so en route to his 1991 victory. The only other player to record four rounds in the 60s twice since 1990 was Hal Sutton in 1994 and 1995. Just three winners have posted four rounds in the 60s since 1990 – Blake (1991), Craig Stadler (1994) and Peter Jacobsen (1995).
Up for grabs in Sunday’s final round are a total of 25,000 FedExCup points, with 4,500 going to the winner. The way is stands after three rounds, K.J. Choi, who missed the cut on Friday, should maintain his position in the top spot in the FedExCup standings. Justin Leonard (3,592) and Rory Sabbatini (3,463 points) need to finish in a two-way tie for fourth to catch Choi, who has 4,681 points on the season.
Justin Leonard, who finished second, last week at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, posted the low round of the day with a 7-under 65 on Saturday. It matches Troy Matteson (rd 1- 65) for the low round of the week at the South Course.
Dating back to his first full year on the PGA TOUR in 1997, Tiger Woods has never finished outside of the top 10 in his first start of the season, including five victories – 1997 and 2000 Mercedes Championships and 2003, 2006 and 2007 Buick Invitational. His worst finish was a T10 at the 2001 Mercedes Championships. How has Tiger fared in his first start of the year? Here’s a look at his season-opening starts since 1997:
1997 Mercedes Championships Won
1998 Mercedes Championships T2
1999 Mercedes Championships T5
2000 Mercedes Championships Won
2001 Mercedes Championships T8
2002 Mercedes Championships T10
2003 Buick Invitational Won
2004 Mercedes Championships T4
2005 Mercedes Championships T3
2006 Buick Invitational Won
2007 Buick Invitational Won
TIGER WOODS
Third Round Leads (41 of 44 Overall, 13-13 Majors)
Rd.3 Final Rd Streaks
Tournament Place Total Finish Score
1996 Quad City Classic 1 over Fiori -10 T5 72
1997 Masters Tournament 9 over Rocca -15 W 69
1997 GTE Byron Nelson Classic 2 over Berganio, Jr., Forsman, Furyk, -15 W 68
Lee Rinker, Standly
1997 Motorola Western Open tie Leonard, Roberts -9 W 68
1998 BellSouth Classic 3 over Blake -17 W 72
1999 Buick Invitational 1 over Billy Ray Brown -15 W 65
1999 Memorial Tournament 2 over Singh -12 W 69
1999 Motorola Western Open 4 over Appleby, Brisky, Weir -14 W 71
1999 PGA Championship tie Weir -11 W 72
1999 WGC-NEC Invitational 5 over Couples, N. Price -11 W 71
1999 National Car Rental Golf/Disney tie Tway -18 W 73
1999 THE TOUR Championship 3 over C. Perry -13 W 69
2000 Mercedes Championships tie Els -11 W 68
2000 Bay Hill Invitational 2 over Love III -16 W 70
2000 Memorial Tournament 6 over Lowery -17 W 70
2000 U.S. Open 10 over Els -8 W 67
2000 British Open Championship 6 over Bjorn, Duval -16 W 69
2000 PGA Championship 1 over Dunlap, May -13 W 67
2000 WGC-NEC Invitational 9 over Mickelson, P. Price, Sutton -18 W 67
2000 Bell Canadian open tie Waite -15 W 65 (19)
2000 THE TOUR Championship tie Singh -10 2nd 69
2001 Bay Hill Invitational 1 over Garcia -12 W 69
2001 Masters Tournament 1 over Mickelson -12 W 68
2002 Bay Hill Invitational 1 over Mattiace -10 W 69
2002 Masters Tournament tie Goosen -11 W 71
2002 U.S. Open 4 over Garcia -5 W 72
2002 Buick Open 1 over Toledo -15 W 70
2002 WGC-AmEx Championship 5 over McCarron, Singh, Goosen, Lowery, -19 W 66
Toms, Kelly
2003 Buick Invitational 1 over Faxon -12 W 68
2003 Bay Hill Invitational 5 over Faxon -15 W 68
2003 100th Western Open 6 over Allenby, Kresge -18 W 69
2003 WGC-American Express 2 over Singh -8 W 72 (11)
2004 TOUR Championship tie Haas -9 2nd 72
2005 Masters Tournament 3 over DiMarco -11 W 71
2005 British Open Championship 2 over Olazabal -12 W 70
2005 WGC-NEC Invitational tie K. Perry -7 W 71
2006 Ford Championship at Doral 2 over Rich Beem, Dainel Chopra -17 W 69
2006 British Open Championship 1 over Garcia, Els, Furyk -13 W 67
2006 Buick Open 2 over Glover, Allenby, Verplank -18 W 66
2006 PGA Championship tie Donald -14 W 68
2006 WGC-AmEx Championship 6 over Scott -22 W 67
2007 WGC-CA Championship 4 over Wetterich -11 W 73
2007 PGA Championship 3 over Ames -7 W 69
2007 THE TOUR Championship 3 over Calcavecchia -19 W 66 (11)
Final Round Scoring Average with the Lead: 69.14 (44/3,042).
Return to Tournament Notebook archives