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| January 31, 2006 | Tuesday | Muharram 1, 1427 |
Woods secures fourth Invitational title
LA JOLLA (California), Jan 30: World No 1 Tiger Woods captured his fourth Invitational title by winning a three-man playoff in his PGA season debut on Sunday. Spain’s Jose Maria Olazabal missed a five foot putt on the second hole of a sudden death playoff to hand the win to American Woods.
“I kept telling myself that at least you still have a chance,” Woods said. “All week long it was a case of either I was hitting the ball close or I was way away. But I flipped it around and turned it into a positive situation.”
Woods, who won in his season debut for the fourth time, shot an even-par 72 on the South Course at Torrey Pines near San Diego that included a birdie on 18 to get to 10-under-par 278 and into the playoff with Olazabal and Australia’s Nathan Green.
Woods earned 918,000 US dollars for the victory, the 47th of his career.
Green, who was playing in his third PGA Tour event of his career, was the first to bow out of the playoff. He chunked a chip off the side of the 18th green on the first playoff hole and eventually making a bogey.
“I thought Tiger was probably going to make his putt there,” Green said. “I wanted to give myself a bit of a chance at it, but it just didn’t come off.”
All three players made birdie on the final hole of regulation to force the playoff. For Woods it was the first time all week he made birdie on par-five, 18th hole.
Early in the final round, it didn’t appear Woods would be in contention for the playoff.
“Quite frankly I probably shouldn’t have been in the playoff,” Woods said. “I figured the guys would probably get to at least 12 or 13 (under) and I wasn’t putting very good at all.”
It was the fourth time Woods has won this event, (1999, 2003 and 2005), but this was the first time in a playoff. His record in playoffs is now 9-1, with his only loss coming to Billy Mayfair at the 1998 Nissan Open.
This was also the fourth time Woods won his season-opening event. Woods won the Mercedes Championship in 1997 and 2000. He also used the Buick to start his year in 2003, winning after coming back from left knee surgery.
“I’ve played here since I was 12 and really enjoy playing here,” Woods said. “There’s not too many golf courses you play where it just fits your eye, but this is one of the golf courses for me. I feel very comfortable here.”
Woods was a stroke behind leaders Sergio Garcia and Rod Pampling to begin the round, but shot a 1-over 37 on the front nine.
On the back nine, he made bogey on the 11th, birdies on 12 and 13 and another bogey on the 14th.
When Woods reached the final hole, Green and Olazabal were already finished at 10-under and he needed a birdie to tie and an eagle to win.
Woods used the five-wood he put in his bag this week and his second shot ended up 73 feet from the hole.
Three-putting was a concern for Woods. He had made three, three-putts during the final round and hadn’t made birdie on the final hole all week. He also hadn’t made a putt over 10 feet since the middle of the second round.
His first putt wasn’t close, ending up eight-feet wide to the right. He calmly made it to join the playoff.
Olazabal had a chance to take the playoff to a third hole, but missed a four-foot par putt when it burned the left edge of the par-three, 16th hole.
“I would have loved to have made that putt and keep on playing the playoff, but I didn’t hit it hard enough,” Olazabal said. “It was a tricky putt.”
The playoff wasn’t nearly as wild as regulation. At one point seven golfers were tied for the lead: John Rollins, Olazabal, Arjun Atwal, Green, Phil Mickelson, Rodney Pampling and Woods.
Woods dropped out with a bogey on the 11 hole, and Lucas Glover took his spot. Then Woods made it nine golfers tied for the lead when he made an eight-foot birdie putt on 12.
Green led for three holes on the back nine and broke the tie in a big way when he made eagle on the 13th hole.
With a wedge from 77 yards out Green’s ball hit before the hole bounced over it and then spun back in. He reached the final hole needing a birdie to tie Olazabal and made a seven-foot putt to earn a spot in the playoff.
Olazabal shot a three-under 69, including a 33 on the front nine. He shot an even-par 36 on the back, but needed a 36-foot two-putton the final hole to reach 10-under.
Leading scores
278 - Tiger Woods 71-68-67-72, Nathan Green 67-70-69-72, Jose Maria Olazabal 74-64-71-69
279 - Arjun Atwal 70-67-71-71, Lucas Glover 71-67-70-71, Jonathan Kaye 67-73-71-68, John Rollins 69-70-71-69
280 - Sergio Garcia 69-68-68-75, Phil Mickelson 71-67-69-73
281 - Henrik Bjornstad 68-72-70-71, Tim Clark 68-66-74-73, Brandt Jobe 65-67-75-74, Rod Pampling 70-67-68-76, Jesper Parnevik 67-67-73-74
282 - Arron Oberholser 70-70-73-69
283 - Todd Fischer 71-67-72-73, Charley Hoffman 66-74-70-73, Kent Jones 66-72-75-70, Skip Kendall 66-72-75-70, Tom Lehman 74-66-73-70, Mark O’Meara 74-67-72-70, Brett Quigley 66-76-69-72, Rory Sabbatini 70-71-72-70
284 - Stuart Appleby 66-74-71-73, Luke Donald 75-67-72-70
285 - Shigeki Maruyama 72-65-75-73
286 - Mathew Goggin 73-66-74-73
287 - Ryuji Imada 66-72-76-73
288 - Carl Pettersson 75-67-76-70
290 - Daniel Chopra 71-66-77-76, Thomas Levet 65-73-77-75, Hidemichi Tanaka 74-68-74-74
291 - Brian Davis 68-73-75-75, Daisuke Maruyama 68-75-75-73
294 - Aaron Baddeley 73-69-75-77.—Agencies
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