Woods is back, with a bang in Buick

Tour News: He's back, with a bang! If the driver at times was a little untrustworthy and the putter a tad disobedient, his ability to get the ball into the hole was again better than anyone else's as Tiger Woods retained the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines on SundayTour news

- winning a three-way play-off - and, in putting down a marker for the year with a victory in his seasonal debut, the world's number one also stretched his lead over Vijay Singh in the official rankings to a 7.64 points average.

This week, bankrolled by Arab oil money, Woods crosses the Atlantic to play in the Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour and, no doubt, will be favourite to bulge his bank balance even further.

Quite staggeringly, Woods latest win, the 47th of his career on the US Tour, brought his career money earnings there to over $56 million. It was the fourth time in 10 full seasons that Woods had opened his campaign with a win.

Woods, yet again, will be the star name in Dubai, starting on Thursday, where Ernie Els will seek to break Bernhard Langer's record of successive cuts made on the European Tour.

There will be a very strong Irish involvement in the Emirates, with no fewer than eight players competing. Darren Clarke, who had his first outing of the year in Qatar last week, is joined by Peter Lawrie, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy, Michael Hoey, David Higgins, Stephen Browne and Irish amateur champion Rory McIlroy.

His play-off win over Jose Maria Olazabal, who missed a four-foot par putt on the second hole of sudden-death after Australian Nathan Green had been eliminated at the first hole, ensured that Woods successfully defended a title for the 12th time in a career that continues to establish new records. He became the first four-time winner of the Buick Invitational, and it became the fourth title that he has won for a fourth time (joining the Bay Hill, US Masters, NEC Invitational and the American Express).

Interestingly, three of the tournaments where he has achieved this particular feat return to the same course each year: the Bay Hill at Bay Hill, the Masters at Augusta and the NEC (to be known in future as the Bridgestone Invitational) at Akron. His performances down the years at these venues back up Woods's assertion that he is even more comfortable on courses that fit his eye.

"There's not too many golf courses you play where it just fits your eye, but this is one of the golf courses for me. You just kind of I feel very comfortable here," said Woods, who has played Torrey Pines since he was 12 years old.

Woods, who had decided not to make his customary seasonal reappearance at the Mercedes Championship earlier this month, explained his thinking behind delaying his return to competition.

"My body was a little beat up towards the end of the year. I had some little knickknack things I needed to heal up, and I was just tired from playing so much and the travelling and being in contention every week that I played, it definitely wore on me," he said.

In bringing his play-off record to nine wins in 10 head-to-heads, Woods confessed to feeling "bad" that the win should be secured by a missed par putt from Olazabal rather than by a winning birdie from himself.

Of Olazabal, Woods commented: "He's good, really good. It's pretty apparent. He's won two major championships and he's been close in others. I mean, the guy knows how to grind and how to fight, and his short game is one of the best in the world."

Olazabal's runner-up finish brought him to 24th in the latest world rankings and to fourth in the European Ryder Cup world points table, behind Henrik Stenson (who has moved to a career-high 19th in the world rankings), Sergio Garcia and Colin Montgomerie.

Not that the fact that the world's number one was his conqueror eased the pain of defeat. "To be honest, it doesn't matter who beats you. I was pissed off," said Olazabal, who refused to look on his strong challenge as any omen for the season ahead.

"I don't know about the season. I know that you cannot predict the future. You might be playing great golf today or this week, and then the following week you may not hit any shot.

"Always I am trying to improve my game to make it more solid. I think it's been like that all through the years. I've been a streaky player. I've been able to play great golf for three or four weeks, and then for three or four weeks I couldn't hit the ball straight. I'm trying to be more consistent."

Olazabal is in the field for this week's Phoenix Open where Phil Mickelson is the defending champion and Ulsterman Graeme McDowell makes his first tournament appearance of the season. McDowell, who is currently 60th in the world rankings, has pencilled out an intensive itinerary for the next two months in his bid to break into the world's top 50 and, so, secure an invite to the Masters at Augusta in April.

McDowell will play seven straight weeks in the States, starting with Phoenix and also taking in the Nissan Los Angeles Open, the Accenture Matchplay, the Ford Championship at Doral, the Honda Classic, the Bay Hill Invitational and the Players Championship.

Meanwhile, this year's Smurfit European Open at the Smurfit Course at The K Club on July 6th-9th will have record prize money of €3.5 million. The increase of €146,324 on last year's purse continues the tournament's growth since 1995 when the Smurfit Kappa Group (previously the Jefferson Smurfit Group) became title sponsor.

The first edition carried tournament prize-money €951,106 with the winner Bernhard Langer collecting a first prize of €158,512. From 1995 to 2006 inclusive, total prize-money for the European Open will total €28,198,605, with this year's winner collecting €585,296.

EUROPEAN TOUR ORDER OF MERIT: (Irish positions): 40th, D McGrane (6) a67,489; 43rd, P Harrington (1) €59,076; 56th, P Lawrie (4) €48,566; 57th, P McGinley (2) €48,292; 77th, G McDowell (1) €27,900; 92nd, G Murphy (5) €21,317; 100th, D Clarke (1) €19,271.