The 2006 Buick Invitational starts today with defending champion, Tiger Woods making his 2006 season debut and hopefully with as good a start as last year. Tiger won the event after taking the lead from Tom Lehman in the third round in a weather delayed event. Tiger has finished in the top ten in all eight of his Buick Invitational starts, including seven top five finishes and three wins. He will face Phil Mickelson, who will be the only other player in the top five to make the event. Phil knows the course and event well winning back to back in 2000 and 2001 and coming off a T-5 finish at last week’s Bob Hope he looks to be in good form to defend his West Coast Swing title. That’s all great but what we really want to see is a repeat duel between Tiger and Phil like the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral.
This year players will face the North and South course at Torrey Pines Golf Course where the South Course recently underwent a 3.2 million dollar renovation and lengthened to 7,607 yards in anticipation to host the 2008 U.S. Open.
What else will players face in this year’s Buick Invitational?
Last year Tom Lehman has his first of two second place finishes on the tour, tied with Luke Donald and Charles Howell III at 275, three strokes behind Tiger. Tom is making his second start of 2006 and is on his final year of exemption from winning the 1996 British Open. He will lead the United States team as the 2006 Ryder Cup Captain in September in Ireland. Tom will be up against 2 other young bloods to get to the top again.
Luke Donald: He’s finished T-2 the last two years at the Buick Invitational and shared the 54 hole lead last year. His win at the 2005 Target World Challenge will hopefully vault him into better success state side.
Charles Howell III: Howell has the potential and we’ve seen it over and over again however just can’t live up to it as of lately. His last win was in 2002 at the Michelob Championship. Charles had a chance last year when his third shot on the par five 18th, a 95-yard approach, would have gone in the hole for an eagle and the win, except the damn thing slammed the hole and bounced out to find the water ultimately leading to a bogey and T-2 finish.
Bubba “The New Boom-Boom” Watson: Bubba easily takes that title from Fred Couples as he is averaging 336 yards off the tee. Compared with the past winners like Tiger and Daly, this could give Bubba the edge he needs at Torrey Pines. His first start of 2006 at the Sony Open in Hawaii was an exciting one as we saw him blast his way to a fourth place finish.
The Buick Invitational is the fourth of nine events in the 2006 West Coast Swing presented by Allianz. Chad Campbell now holds the lead after his win at the Bob Hope and his T-2 finish at the Sony Open.
This year’s purse is $4.5 million with $810,000 going to the winner. The Buick Invitational will be held in La Jolla, California at the Torrey Pines Golf Course on the North and South courses from January 23 – 29, 2006.
It can be seen on USA and CBS and heard on XM Radio at the following times:
Thu, 1/26 3-6pm ET USA Fri, 1/27 3-6pm ET USA Sat, 1/28 3-6pm ET CBS Sun, 1/29 3-6:30pm ET CBS
Thu, 1/26 12-6 pm ET XM 146 Fri, 1/27 12-6 pm ET XM 146 Sat, 1/28 12-6 pm ET XM 146 Sun, 1/29 1-7 pm ET XM 146