A new decade for Tiger Woods brought back some familiar images.
Stalking the 18th green at Torrey Pines, he sized up the 8 feet of grass between his ball and the cup, a putt he simply had to make to get into a playoff Sunday in San Diego. Then came that pounding of the fist when it dropped for birdie, matching the longest putt he made all weekend.
And when the Buick Invitational ended somberly, there was Woods holding another trophy.
Returning from the longest self-imposed break of his career, Woods, 30, began his 10th full season on the PGA Tour with clutch shots down the stretch and two pars in a playoff to outlast two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal and Australian rookie Nathan Green.
Olazabal played a splendid bunker shot on the par-3 16th to 4 feet, but missed the par putt on the second playoff hole.
“You don’t ever take pleasure out of seeing your friends do that,” Woods said. “I would have felt fired up if I made the putt in the playoff for birdie on 18 and ended it right there, but not when a friend of mine misses a short one.”
Improving his playoff record to 12-1 worldwide, Woods became the first four-time winner of the Buick Invitational and won in his season debut for the fourth time in 10 years.
So ended a dynamic afternoon, where a dozen players had a share of the lead at one point and eight players shared the lead with six holes to play.
Olazabal was the first to reach 10-under-par 278 with a two-putt birdie on the 18th for a 69. Green, who made two crucial par saves in only his second PGA Tour event, holed a nervy 7-footer for birdie for a 72.
In the playoff, Green was the only player to hit the fairway on No. 18, but his 3-wood went into the grandstand. After taking a free drop, his pitch didn’t reach the green and he chunked the next one, moving it only inches and making bogey.
That sent Woods and Olazabal to the 16th, and the 39-year-old Spaniard appeared to escape trouble as he often does. His bunker shot hopped into the first cut, then the fringe, then trickled downhill toward the cup. But his 4-footer was downhill, and Olazabal hit it too softly to take away the break.
Also missing the playoff by one shot were Denver’s Jonathan Kaye, who birdied the last five holes for a 68, and John Rollins, whose back-nine theatrics included an eagle from 117 yards on No. 10 and a 60-foot birdie on the 14th.
Champions Tour: Loren Roberts completed a two-week Hawaiian sweep, holing a 9-foot eagle putt on the final hole for an even-par 72 and a two-stroke victory over Scott Simpson at the Turtle Bay Championship in Kahuku, Hawaii.
Roberts, 50, the first Champions Tour player to win his first two starts of a season since Larry Nelson in 2001, finished his wire-to-wire win with a 12-under 204 total. Last week, Roberts had a record-setting, one-stroke victory in the season-opening MasterCard Championship on the Big Island.
Roberts also ended Hale Irwin’s winning streak in the event at five.
Roberts, who had 14 birdies in the first two rounds and 40 in his first five Champions Tour rounds this year, failed to get a birdie Sunday, but held off Simpson with the timely eagle on the par-5 closing hole.
Both men, who were tied heading into the final hole, easily cleared the lake and were on the green in two shots on the 577-yard 18th.
Roberts hit a 4-iron shot from 200 yards to set up his winning putt.
After Simpson missed his long eagle attempt, Roberts made his.
European PGA: Sweden’s Henrik Stenson birdied three of the last four holes for a 4-under 68 and a three-stroke victory in the Qatar Masters in Doha, Qatar.
