Tiger Woods wins Buick Open

Tiger Woods secured his fourth win of the season and his 69th on the PGA Tour with a three shot victory at the Buick Open over Australians Greg Chalmers and John Senden.

Tiger Woods wins Buick Open
Fergus Bisset
By Fergus Bisset
published

Tiger Woods secured his fourth win of the season and his 69th on the PGA Tour with a three shot victory at the Buick Open over Australians Greg Chalmers and John Senden.

The World Number 1 began the week slowly with a one-under-par 63 but then blistered back to the top of the pile with rounds of 63 then 65 on Friday and Saturday. Woods then cruised the final round in a three-under-par 69 to take the Buick Open title for the third time. He has led 50 times going into the final round of a tournament and has held on to win 47 of them.

Only two men – Jack Nicklaus with 73 and Sam Snead with 82 – have more PGA Tour victories to their name than Woods, though Tiger is seven years younger than Jack was when he reached 69 titles and eight younger than Snead. Going back to the Open Championship of 2006, Tiger has won 21 of his last 39 tournaments on the PGA Tour.

“This one feels good,” he said of his third Buick Open title. “I was so far back after round one that I was fortunate enough to put two good rounds together.”

Roland Thatcher shot the round of the day on Sunday with an eight-under-par 64. It rocketed him from mid-table mediocrity into a tie for second place with Greg Chalmers and John Senden of Australia.

In a tournament reportedly fighting for its life, the fans turned out in force at Warwick Hills. The galleries clearly impressed Tiger.

“I’ve never played in front of fans like this.” He said. “Hopefully we get to come back to this area.”

Buick Open Warwick Hills G&CC, Michigan July 30 – Aug 2, purse $5,000,000, par 72

1    Tiger Woods (USA)    71    63    65    69    268    $918,000 T2    Greg Chalmers (Aus)    66    68    69    68    271    $380,800 T2    John Senden (Aus)    64    66    71    70    271    $380,800 T2    Roland Thatcher (USA)    70    64    73    64    271    $380,800 5    Y.E. Yang (Kor)        65    69    71    67    272    $204,000 T6    Ben Crane (USA)        68    71    65    69    273    $177,225 T6    Michael Letzig (USA)    67    65    68    73    273    $177,225 T8    Woody Austin (USA)    68    71    65    70    274    $132,600     T8    Bob Heintz (USA)        70    68    66    70    274    $132,600 T8    Vaughn Taylor (USA)    65    68    69    72    274    $132,600

Player scores listed in bold signifies Titleist ball usage only

Fergus Bisset
Fergus Bisset
Contributing Editor

Fergus is Golf Monthly's resident expert on the history of the game and has written extensively on that subject. He is a golf obsessive and 1-handicapper. Growing up in the North East of Scotland, golf runs through his veins and his passion for the sport was bolstered during his time at St Andrews university studying history. He went on to earn a post graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism. Fergus has worked for Golf Monthly since 2004 and has written two books on the game; "Great Golf Debates" together with Jezz Ellwood of Golf Monthly and the history section of "The Ultimate Golf Book" together with Neil Tappin , also of Golf Monthly. 

Fergus once shanked a ball from just over Granny Clark's Wynd on the 18th of the Old Course that struck the St Andrews Golf Club and rebounded into the Valley of Sin, from where he saved par. Who says there's no golfing god?

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