Fog Lifts on Woods’ PGA Tour Drought

The fog broke, the sun shone, the wind became calm, and look who stepped out and won the Buick Invitational? Yes, it’s none other than Tiger Woods, who used to start his winner’s speech the moment he drove his courtesy car into the players’ parking lot on the first day.

But victories for Woods have been harder to find than a day without foghorns at Torrey Pines, and his closing 68 that beat Tom Lehman, Luke Donald and Charles Howell by three shots was Woods’ first stroke-play PGA Tour win in 15 months.

In Tiger years, that’s close to a million, of course. It doesn’t count his match-play victory at La Costa in February, Woods’ only PGA Tour victory last year, but it’s still a streak worth noting.

Go beyond that and Woods’ last stroke-play victory on tour was the 2003 American Express Championship and, until Sunday, his last full-field stroke-play win on tour was 18 months ago at the Western Open.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been that long to win on tour,” Woods said.

No, that’s just how long it seemed this tournament took to be played. All it took for Woods to get back into the winner’s circle was rising at 4:30 a.m., grinding through 31 holes on the last day, enduring four fog delays for the week totaling 8 hours and 11 minutes, overcoming a sometimes balky swing, a queasy stomach and holding himself together to win the first meeting of the year of the so-called Big Four.

Ernie Els tied for sixth after his third successive 71, but the other half of the Big Four didn’t hold up so well. Vijay Singh shot 75 and tied for 24th, his first time out of the top 10 in the eight tournaments since he replaced Woods as No. 1. And Phil Mickelson never recovered from his third-round 78 and tied for 56th.

Lehman was impressed that Woods won despite some obvious lapses in his ball-striking.

“He won the tournament definitely not playing his best,” Lehman said. “He whipped the field playing lousy. I give him a lot of credit.”

Donald led by a shot until he double bogeyed the 14th hole when his six-iron missed the green and the ball landed in unplayable rough.

Howell had worse luck. After finishing what was left over of his third round Sunday morning with a 64, Howell was still one shot behind Woods at the 18th. He hit a sand wedge to the green and the ball struck the flagstick and rolled back off the front of the green into the water.

“I knew I hit the shot perfect, I knew it was going to be the right distance, and then to hit the hole and go into the water, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Howell said.

Instead of having a chance at birdie, Howell needed to chip in from 16 feet just to save bogey.

Lehman hung in long enough to make it interesting. Tied for the lead with Woods with three holes left, Lehman’s chances were damaged at the 17th when he mis-hit an eight-iron and sent the ball into a bunker.

“That took the wind out of my sails,” said Lehman, who bogeyed the hole.

He also bogeyed the 18th to drop into a three-way tie for second with Donald and Howell. Bernhard Langer, who posted rounds of 67-72 on Sunday, moved into fifth place.

“I’m disappointed,” Lehman said. “I really felt it was a great chance for me. I don’t get many chances to play in the final group with Tiger Woods and for 30 holes today, I held my own.”

Woods’ 41st PGA Tour victory was worth $864,000 and by the numbers, it was 69-63-72-68 for 16-under 272. Besides passing the $46 million in career earnings with $46.3 million, he joins Mickelson as the tournament’s only three-time winners.

Woods had been tied for the lead when Saturday’s third-round was re-started Sunday morning with 13 holes remaining, but he got off to a rocky start when he made three bogeys on his first three holes.

Woods was within one shot of the lead of Lehman and Donald, but he bogeyed his last hole, No. 9, to finish with a 72. That broke Woods’ streak of 14 consecutive rounds in the 60s, dating to last season.

So he started the fourth round two shots off the lead, but still in the hunt. Even at the 18th, Woods’ one-shot lead over Lehman looked a little shaky when he sent a two-iron right and short of the green with a pond in front of it, much shorter of his target farther to the right.

It didn’t hurt him, though, and Woods wound up sending a speedy, downhill, 18-foot putt into the hole for a birdie that clinched what wound up being a three-shot victory.

Woods reflected on the difficulties of winning, anytime, anywhere.

“There’s no doubt about it, it’s tougher to win out here now than when I first played in 1996 and ’97 and it’s going to get tougher each and every year. The field is getting deeper, we have more guys playing well at the same time, but we don’t always play the same events.

“But when you see the scores we shoot out here, it’s pretty low