Woods Completes Uneventful Week

What was the biggest surprise Sunday at Riviera? Check the appropriate box.

[ ] Tiger Woods did not mount a charge and tied for 13th.

[ ] Tiger Woods did not wear a long-sleeved shirt in the cold and rain for most of the final round.

You could get away with either answer. Woods finished an even-par round of 71, three shots out of the record-tying six-way playoff. He did it wearing a sweater vest and a short-sleeved shirt after shedding a long-sleeve undergarment early in the day because the fewer layers were less restrictive to his swing.

It was a largely uneventful week for Woods, who had 10 birdies, seven bogeys and an eagle. He had 15 pars on Saturday and 14 more on Sunday, leading him into a short critique of his performance.

“Not very good,” Woods said. “I didn’t hit the ball as well as I wanted to.”

Woods played rounds of 71-68-69-71 for a five-under total of 279.

He did not make it look easy. Woods hit just eight fairways and eight greens on Sunday. For four rounds, Woods hit only 40 fairways, or 55.6%.

But Woods said he had seen some good things happen to his game since the first round on Thursday.

“My swing isn’t far off and I’m putting better,” said Woods, who is playing a European Tour event in Dubai this week. He returns to the PGA Tour March 15 to play at Bay Hill and then the Players Championship before the Masters.

“I’m already thinking about Augusta,” Woods said.

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Corey Pavin was tied for the lead after six holes, but bogeyed the 7th, double bogeyed the 9th and finished with a three-over 74.

Pavin began the day tied for second, finished it tied for 20th and won $38,216.

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After two days of rain, 36 holes of regulation and one extra hole, the other winner of the Nissan Open besides Robert Allenby was Riviera’s greens.

Once ridiculed, the greens held up and drained nicely despite the deluge, which pleased course superintendent Paul Ramina.

“I’m feeling real good,” Ramina said.

Ramina directed an aeration effort to work through a layer of thatch that had plagued the greens since before the 1995 PGA Championship, when the greens nearly were dead.

“We thought, ‘Man, we’ve got a great greens mix, we just got to get through this top layer,’ ” Ramina said.

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Davis Love III earned a $500,000 bonus when he was crowned King of the West Coast Swing after his eighth-place finish Sunday, but he almost lost it.

Bob Tway was in the six-way playoff eventually won by Robert Allenby. Had Tway won the playoff, he would have earned 100 West Coast Swing points, passed Love in the standings and pocketed the bonus.

Love entered the Nissan Open--the final event on the West Coast Swing--with 165 points, tied for the lead with Ernie Els and Brad Faxon. He earned two points for finishing eighth while Els and Faxon did not play.

Faxon won $300,000 for second place based on a tiebreaker and Els won $200,000. Tway, who finished sixth with 145 points, got nothing. Only the top three finishers are paid.

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Is it any surprise that the tournament tied a PGA Tour record with a six-way playoff?

After one round, 85 players were within five strokes of the lead. After round two, 46 players were within five shots. Love had a three-stroke lead entering the final round, but 42 players were within five shots of second place--where Allenby started the day.

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Poor weather seems to have been a factor in low ticket sales.

The tournament, which normally sells upward of 110,000 tickets, announced ticket sales for the week at 89,527.

The figures were not broken down by day, but one official said the Sunday crowd was “significantly smaller” than the Saturday crowd.