Tiger Woods Ties With Arnold Palmer
Tiger Woods did a great job at the Buick Invitational by knocking everyone else off the board and taking home the victory. He hit some rough patches to begin with – but by the 18th hole he was showing everyone up. He now has secured a third straight PGA Tour victory that ties him in fourth place with Arnold Palmer. “I’m sure that there are many, many more coming in the future,” Palmer said. “There isn’t any question about that.”
He won’t get an argument from Woods. Having won for the fifth time in his last six starts on the PGA Tour, Woods said he was at another level — even better than 2000 — and still had room for improvement. Better than 2000, when he won nine times and three straight majors? “Yeah,” Woods said without hesitation. “I’m starting to get better,” he said. “I’m hitting shots that I never could hit before, even in 2000. People think, ‘Yeah, you played great.’ But I made everything. I’m actually hitting the ball better now than I did during that stretch.”
Woods returns to Torrey Pines in June for the U.S. Open, and if this week was any indication, it could be another long week for his peers. The world’s No. 1 player now has won six times as a pro at Torrey Pines, and his comment earlier this month that the Grand Slam is “easily within reason” looked every bit of that. “What he’s going to do is screw the U.S. Open up for everyone else,” Fred Couples said. “If he had shot 10 or 11 under, the USGA would have said, ‘Well, maybe we have it in the right spot.’ Now, they may have to regroup a little.”