Round 4 Notes – Buick Invitational
FINAL-Round Notes – Sunday, January 26, 2008Tiger Woods wins the Buick Invitational for the sixth time at Torrey Pines Golf Club. It is also the sixth time a player has won the same tournament six or more times, but only four players have collected these victories on the same course.
Players who have won a single event six times on the same course
Alex Ross won the North & South Open six times at Pinehurst (1902, 1904, 1907, 1908, 1910, 1915)
Jack Nicklaus won the Master Tournament six times at Augusta National (1963,1965, 1966, 1972, 1975, 1986)
Sam Snead won the Miami Open six times at the Miami Springs G & CC (1937, 1939, 1946, 1950, 1951, 1955)
Tiger Woods won the WGC-Bridgestone Inviational at Firestone CC (South) (1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007)
Tiger Woods won the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines (1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008)
Players who have won a single event six or more times, but on a variety of courses
Sam Snead's eight wins in Greensboro were spilt between four at Starmount Forest CC and four at Sedgefield CC (1938, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1965)
Harry Vardon's six wins at the British Open were played on four different courses. Three of his wins came at Prestwick (1898, 1903, 1914) in Scotland, two at Royal St. Georges (1899, 1911) in England and his first victory in 1896 came at Muirfield in Scotland.
Tiger Woods six wins at the WGC-American Express Championship were played at six different courses. Valderrama Golf Club (1999), Mt. Juliet Estate (2002), Capital City Club (2003), Harding Park (2005), The Grove (2006) and Doral Blue Monster (2007).
WHERE TIGER WOODS HAS SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED 20 TIMES
Defended Defended
Tournament Won defended 2nd time 3rd time
Arnold Palmer Invitational 2000 2001 2002 2003
Buick Invitational 2005 2006 2007 2008
WGC-CA Championship 2005 2006 2007
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 1999 2000 2001
Memorial Tournament 1999 2000 2001
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational 2005 2006 2007
WGC-CA Championship 2003 2004
WGC-Accenture Match Play 2003 2004
British Open 2005 2006
Masters Tournament 2001 2002
PGA Championship 1999 2000
Ford Championship at Doral 2005 2006
In his last three tournaments (all victories), Tiger Woods has a scoring average of 65.66.
2008 Buick Invitational - 67-65-66-71-269-Win
2007 TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola- 64-63-64-66-257-Win
2007 BMW Championship - 67-67-65-63-262-Win
Digging further, in his last six events (Five victories and one runner-up) his scoring average is 66.75.
2007 Deutsche Bank Championship- 72-64-67-67-270-T2
2007 PGA Championship - 71-63-69-69-272-Win
2007 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational-68-70-69-65-272-Win
The Southern California native has 12 wins in his home state just ahead of the 10 he has in his adopted state of Florida.
Tiger Woods wins his sixth Buick Invitational 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 eight (Sam Snead) 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 11 11 11 6 1999, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Tiger Woods Career Buick Invitational Scoring Average
Course Rounds Average
North 11 67.64
South 32 68.56
Tiger Woods has collected more than $5 million in five different tournaments
World Golf Championships- Bridgestone Invitational $7,952,500
World Golf Championships-CA Championship $7,312,500
Buick Invitational $5,639,000
Masters Tournament $5,107,993
PGA Championship $5,074,776
Sunday’s scoring average of 74.788 highest final-round average at the South Course since 1983 when the TOUR began keeping records. The only other time it has been above today’s average on the South Course was in the first round of the 1993 event when the average was 79.351. On that day, it was cold wet conditions with winds steady at 30 mph and gusting to 40 mph.
With his T3 place finish this week, Rory Sabbatini moves to third in the FedExCup points standings. After four events for the season, K.J. Choi, who missed the cut on Friday, maintained his position in the top spot in the FedExCup standings with 4,681 points. Justin Leonard dropped from fifth to sixth and Tiger Woods moves into the top-10 and is in fifth place.
Going back to last year Sabbatini has finished in the top-10 in six out of his last seven starts, including finishing in the top-10 in all four PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. During that span, the only event he did not finish in the top-10 was the season-opening Mercedes-Benz Championship (17th).
Justin Leonard is off to a solid start in 2008, thanks to his fifth-place this week, his third top-10 effort in three starts. Last week, Leonard finished second at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and he began the season with a T8 at the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Leonard has now finished inside the top 10 in six of his last seven tournaments, dating back to his win at the 2007 Valero Texas Open. In fact, last year he jumped from 99th on the money list to finish 33rd at the end of the season during the PGA TOUR Fall Series.
Phil Mickelson collected his first top-10 of the season with his T6 finish at the Buick Invitational. He now has nine top-10s in 19 starts at the Buick Invitational, including three victories. It is his 131st career top-10.
The last time Fred Couples (T8) finished inside the top-10 on the PGA TOUR was at the 2006 Masters Tournament where he finished T3, three strokes back of Phil Mickelson. Couples has finished in the top-10 fives times in 19 starts at Torrey Pines Golf Club.
Ryuji Imada finished runner-up at the Buick Invitational, his second career runner-up title in 97 career professional starts. Imada lost to Zach Johnson at the 2007 AT&T Classic. He converted an up-and-down birdie from behind the 72nd green to force a playoff. He lost in the first hole of the playoff after Johnson made a birdie-4. He now has five career top-10s on TOUR.
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 six victories – 1997 and 2000 Mercedes Championships and 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008 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
2008 Buick Invitational Won
Return to Tournament Notebook archives