The Buick Open

Tiger's 69th

Date Written: August 3, 2009

I'm thinking that Tiger showed up at The Buick for one of eight reasons:

(1) He was embarrassed by his missed-cut at The British.
(2) He wants to be sharp for the PGA
(3) He likes to play golf.
(4) He likes to win.
(5) He needs the money.
(6) He's winless in the Majors this year.
(7) He still drives a Buick.
(8) He was helping the charities in Michigan.

What do you think?

From Jason Sobel, golf columnist on ESPN.com:

"Tiger's Buick win enhanced his claim as the greatest closer in the history of the game, as he is now 36-1 when holding the outright 54-hole lead at a PGA Tour event and 47-3 when having at least a share of that lead. And let the optimists and pessimists argue semantics at the water cooler. The one thing I'll take from Tiger Woods' latest victory more than anything else is this notion, which has often been repeated throughout his career: His great may be otherworldly, but his good is still better than everyone else, too."

From the A.P.

"Tiger Woods has another trophy for his overflowing collection. Woods shot a three-under-par 69 Sunday at Grand Blanc Township, Mich., and coasted to a three-shot victory with a 20-under 268 at the Buick Open for the 69th PGA Tour title of his career. "This one feels good," he said. He improved to 36-1 when he has the outright lead after 54 holes. Woods has four wins this season in 11 starts since returning from knee surgery."

This was a good week for amateurs. One of the best college players around, Oklahoma State's Ricky Fowler, bogeyed the 72nd hole and lost on the second playoff hole at the Nationwide Tour event this week on the longish, Scarlet Course at Ohio State University. Look for him to follow Anthony Kim's script and bail on his scholarship soon. Unless I'm mistaken, another O.K. State player, Morgan Hoffman, finished T-8 in the same tournament. O.K. State's reputation in college golf is kinda like U.S.C.'s in football...perennial winners. Amateur, Tim Jackson, from Tennessee, deserves a mention for his stellar, record-setting 36-hole score at the U.S. Senior Open. Even though he came back down to Earth in the last two rounds at the demanding Crooked Stick course near Indianapolis, he finished T-11 in a field loaded with the best over-50 players on the planet who happen to play for real money, not just two dollar, weekend Nassau's. Speaking of straight and "Crooked," the Crooked course was not too tough for Freddie Funk-a-Delic who set a tournament record by finishing 20-under par and won his first Major by six strokes. Freddie's on a nice run. For those with short-term memory loss (like ME), he lost in a three-way playoff for the British Senior Open title two weeks ago to Loren Roberts. Go Freddie...fetch Langer! Finally, to prove how fickle this stupid game is, Tom Watson, the runner-up at the "real" British Open, shot even par on Sunday to finish at 2 over amongst his Senior peers and tied for 43rd.

Another WGC event on tap this weekend at Firestone. Lefty's returning after a six-week absence and Tiger's in the field. The "Lessor-Than's" schlep to Reno-Tahoe. I count seven Appleby and six Westwood aficionados this week in da pool. Bill Sundali padded his lead a bit with a nice pick (along with Pat Moloney, Glenn Marzion and Perry Sato) of "Woodhead" Austin at The Buick who finished T-8. Looking ahead to next week's double-money PGA...three bottom-dwellers: Jeff Wong, The Beach and Jan Jones and two wanna-be's: Glenn Marzion and Charlie Tuna, have saved their Tiger bullet for The PGA. How smart/lucky are they?