Sport-Blog.com

One has to wonder how he does it. Supposedly Woods went some 24 days without picking up a club. He had yet to play a tournament in the first three weeks of the 2006 season and he even looked rusty with his first round 71.

But there are four rounds to every tournament and by the end of the day Sunday, the world's number one player was in a playoff for the Buick Invitational. Two holes into the playoff, Woods had his first victory for 2006 in his first tournament.

Woods did have to hole an 8-foot birdie on the 18th hole Sunday to get into the three-way playoff, but won by making pars as Jose Maria Olazabal and Nathan Green each bogeyed a hole to put an end to their days.

For Woods, it was the fourth time in his 10 year PGA Tour career that he won in his first start of the year. Tiger also became the first four-time winner at the Buick Invitational.

For the second time in three years, the winner at Torrey Pines failed to break par in the final round. The South Course, set to host the 2008 US Open, played at 7,630 yards for the final round.

And the demanding course did a number on most of the game's top players on Sunday. From Phil Mickleson to Sergio Garcia to Rod Pampling, the course got the better of virtually everyone to produce a crowded leaderboard.

Then somehow, some way, as he always seems to do, Tiger Woods emerged with yet another PGA victory, his first since turning 30th. It will not be his last after the age of 30, and it will likely not be his last in 2006.

But it will most certainly be his last until he decides to tee it up again, when ever that is.