Is hawking Woods for Buick Invitational a 2-stroke penalty?
By Tod Leonard, staff writer Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 2 a.m. Few tournaments have it better than the Buick Invitational when it comes to building excitement for a golf event every year. For four straight years and six of the past 10, Tiger Woods has been the champion at Torrey Pines, which makes selling tickets and sky boxes considerably easier than if your winners are the likes of D.J. Trahan or Greg Kraft. (Yes, they were both champions this past season.) Even in Woods’ off years at Torrey, the Buick got the troubled but popular John Daly as its champ in ’04 and hometown guy Phil Mickelson in 2000-01. There aren’t three better draws in golf than those guys. This year, it’s a little more complicated. For weeks in the Union-Tribune’s print edition and on its Web site, the Century Club has featured 2009 Buick Invitational ads dominated by the image of Woods. The print ads have smaller photos of Mickelson, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia, while some online ads promote only Woods. As a
