The Daily Wrap-up, Round 4: Buick Open
GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- Tiger Woods has another trophy for his overflowing collection.
Woods shot a 69 Sunday and coasted to a three-shot victory with a 20-under 268 at the Buick Open for the 69th PGA TOUR title of his career.
"This one feels good," he said.
He improved to 36-1 when he has the outright lead after 54 holes. Woods has four wins this season -- doubling the total of his nearest competitors -- in just 11 starts since returning from knee surgery. He also claimed 500 FedExCup points and moved to the top of the standings.
Roland Thatcher (64) briefly shared the lead at 17 under and finished tied for second with Greg Chalmers (68) and John Senden (70).
Woods will play at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational next before going to Hazeltine for the PGA Championship, his final chance to win a major this year.
He is set to compete in two straight tournaments going into a major for the first time in his career.
Woods also padded his lead on the money list with another $918,000 after winning his third Buick Open, tying Vijay Singh's record total.
His career victory total trails Jack Nicklaus (73) and Sam Snead (82).
Woods reached victory No. 69 at the age of 33 years and seven months -- almost 7 years quicker than Nicklas and eight years sooner than Snead.
Dating to the 2006 British Open, he has won 21 of 39 starts on TOUR.
Woods, playing for the first time since missing the cut at the British Open, got off to a brutal start at the Buick Open.
He shot a 71 in the first round and said it was probably the worst putting performance of his career, leading to him skipping his post-round practice session because he was so mad.
It only added to his legacy because he went from a tie for 95th to a victory, the largest jump he's made from the first round in a tournament he ended up winning.
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"I was so far back that I was fortunate enough to put two good rounds together," he said.
Woods roared back into contention with the best five-hole start of his career -- beginning 6 under in the second round -- en route to a 9-under 63 for his best score in relation to par in four years.
He hit the ball relatively poor in the third round, but made enough clutch shots to finish with a 65 and a one-shot lead going into Sunday.
Without much of a sweat, he avoided losing an outright lead after 54 holes for the first time since 1996 and improved to 47-3 when he at least shares the lead following three rounds.
Thatcher shot a 9 under Sunday and shared the lead briefly, but he expected Woods to pull away with 15 holes left on the vulnerable Warwick Hills.
He did.
Woods, whose previous three wins this year were each by one shot, spent much of Sunday with a two-shot cushion before he took a three-stroke lead with a birdie at No. 16.
His businesslike final round included three birdies and no bogeys.
"I got fooled a few times by the wind and I hit some bad shots," Woods said.
Early and often at Warwick Hills, from the pro-am when he played with famed rocker Bob Seger through Sunday, Woods was thanked by fans who appreciated his appearance in an economically ravaged state at a tournament reportedly on its last leg.
"I've never played in front of fans like this," Woods said.
Woods said he thought about his walk up the 18th fairway at Warwick Hills being his last.
"Hopefully, we get to come back to this area," he said.
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| Sunday's best |
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The par-4 14th hole was the easiest with a Sunday scoring average of 3.417.
The par-4 ninth hole was the toughest with a Sunday scoring average of 4.347.
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Roland Thatcher rolled in a 25-foot par putt on the 18th to cap off a 64 and tie for second. 
Roland Thatcher was bogey-free with eight birdies on his way to his best-ever finish on the PGA TOUR. INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Sunday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
When Tiger Woods won his second Buick Open back in 2006, much was made of it being his 50th career PGA TOUR victory. Incredibly, he's now had 19 more since then, including three majors -- a Hall-of-Fame career just since his last Buick win three years ago with nearly 9 months off for major surgery in that same time period. He's now not only just four majors behind Jack Nicklaus, but four TOUR wins behind Jack for second all-time behind Sam Snead's 88.
Poor Matt Bettencourt. His potential break-through Sunday was broken on his first two swings, shots that were pulled left at the first hole and took wicked hops out-of-bounds. My colleague Craig Perks made a special effort Wednesday when we toured the course to step off the distance from the center of the fairway to that OB left and found it to be just 22 yards. After taking a 10 on the opening hole, Bettencourt's bad swings, and bad luck, continued when he hit the flagstick with his second shot at the par-4 second hole and his ball caromed into a bunker and he took bogey. That 6-over start cooked the rookie's chances of a high finish.
The emotions of Sunday ran from Tiger to Bettencourt to Brian Vranesh, an "out of nowhere" rookie who got the last card at q-school last winter and had only made two cuts all year in 14 previous starts, winning only $35,000 and change. At the Buick, he stumbled home Friday with a double-bogey, bogey finish to make the cut on the number. But back-to-back 67s on the weekend (Sunday's round included back-to-back eagles at Nos. 13 and 14) vaulted Vranesh to a tie for eighth and renewed hope to keep his card for 2010. There's no rest for the desparate, though. Vranesh told us he was flying home to California to see his girlfriend and his dog (at least he got that in the right order) before jetting off to Reno to try to keep his momentum going.
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