Woods leaves a lasting impression with fans
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent
GRAND BLANC, Mich. -- Tiger Woods couldn't believe what he had just done. He removed his cap and used it to cover his face, hiding an expression that presumably fell somewhere between sheepish and guilty. In any case, it didn't work. There was no disguising what was going through Woods' mind.
So, which was it?
"I was a little angry," he said.
The irony, of course, is that on an electric day -- that's Woods' word -- something didn't go perfectly as scripted.
Woods won the 51st Buick Open Sunday and said, "We're not coming back here." It's the first time anybody has said that with finality and a Woods victory had to be in the script, right?
And Woods did it with a great deal of flair and fanfare, if not his best golf except perhaps for Friday's 63. Woods shot 20-under-par 268 with a closing 69 Sunday for a three-shot victory over Roland Thatcher, Greg Chalmers and John Senden.
At the 17th hole, Woods fired his golf ball into the gallery with a hole still to play. For the normally stoic Woods, it was an uncharacteristically buoyant display.
"I don't ever do that," Woods said. "But this is different ... I just want to say thanks to all the people here and that's one reason I tossed it on 18 as well.
"They came out and supported this event over all the years, especially this year. As I said, with the economy, how it's going on in this region, for them to come out and still support this event, it's very special to us as players."
For nine years, Woods was the global spokesman for Buick. The respect was shared and the relationship mutually beneficial.
"I've never played in front of fans like this," Woods said. "This has been incredible. Hopefully, we do get to come back here soon, this region, because the fans here are so excited about golf. They're pretty much sports nuts anyways and for us to come out here and play, it's always been special."
Woods spoke a lot at Warwick Hills about the process of golf. His reference point was an opening 71 which left him eight shots behind the first-round leader, Steve Lowery. Woods said the mind-set was patience, that the deficit couldn't be overcome in one fell swoop.
"I'm just trying to make sure I put a dent in that (deficit) each and every day," he said after Friday's 63.
By his calculations, a bump here and a dent there would put him somewhere around 20-under par by Sunday afternoon. That's the magic number at Warwick Hills. Want to win the Buick Open? Get to 20-under and see what happens.
Woods, with a 46-3 record while leading or sharing the 54-hole lead, was on cruise control. His victory stroll stalled temporarily at the short par-5 13th hole, where he drove into the fairway but behind a huge tree and tried to cut a fairway wood onto the green instead of hitting a safe lay-up. The ball wound up in a pond guarding the green on the right. After taking a drop, Woods got it up-and-down for par.
He may have been angry, but he was unbowed.
Woods finally got to 20-under with a birdie at the par-5 16th hole and it gave him a three-shot lead over Thatcher, who was in the clubhouse at 17 under.
There was another process at work for Woods at the Buick Open, a title he has now won three times. The first came in 2002, the next in 2006, his most recent appearance at Warwick Hills. On the three other occasions he played the Buick Open since 2002, he tied for second twice and tied for third once.
The Buick Open was Woods' 11th start of 2009 after an eight-month layoff following knee surgery. It was his fourth victory. He has nine top-10 finishes and the missed cut at the British Open. In his second start this year, he won the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and in June he won the Memorial Tournament. Two starts later he won his own AT&T National.
Turnberry left a bad taste in Woods' mouth. The other process at Warwick Hills was to get rid of it.
"You have to," he said. "That's what golfers do. You win a golf tournament, you miss a cut. Either way, you've got to put it behind you because it doesn't do a damn bit of good the next week. It's a whole new tournament."
Admittedly, there remain some concerns in Woods' game but, he said, "It's starting to feel better than the last time I played.
"I made a little bit of progress," he said. "I worked on it pretty good last week. Hank (Haney) and I worked at it pretty good and felt very comfortable coming in here. Unfortunately, didn't do a very good job the first day (71) but after that I got it going pretty good.
"I can use this as maybe a little bit of momentum going into the next two weeks."
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