Buick Invitational, round four: Buckle's bitterness bodes well for the future

Pity the poor fools that enter the US Open next year. If you think Torrey Pines was difficult this year you ain’t seen nothing yet. “It’s going to be one of the hardest Opens we’ll ever face,” declared Tiger Woods after finally pummelling the south course into submission Sunday. By his assessment, hitting fairways will take a minor miracle, the rough will be extra tough, and at the end there’ll be at least some of the devilish domed greens so beloved of the USGA.

It’ll make the past week’s efforts look like a stroll in the park, which is what it sounded like for Tiger Sunday as he chatted and joked his way round with his old pal Charles Howell III (at the same time skewering Howell’s late challenge of course!). But we were left in no doubt just how focused he was when he sunk that dramatic eagle putt on the ninth.

And, wonder of wonders, he finally managed to beat par on the back nine. Even more perfectly, his 66 on Sunday vindicated my suggestion of a south course average for the week of 69, same as his overall average since 2000. That’s the trouble with Tiger - so predictable!

But my week was made by the punt on Andrew Buckle. Sure he eventually went the way of all rookies facing the Tiger killing machine on a Sunday, but not before excited punters had taken his price down to 1.74. Anyone who didn’t lock in a profit at odds-on deserves all they get.

I couldn’t believe how bitter Buckle sounded afterwards. I’d have been pretty pleased with myself for running the greatest golfer in the world so close in only the third event of my rookie year, but the young Australian sounded as if he was chewing nails. Mind you, that’s something to admire in a young competitor - he obviously is not about to set his sights too low and will surely be one to watch in the near future.

I suspect his basic error was to let his mistakes get to him and that, as Howell remarked, is what marks Tiger out. “He never let’s one bad shot affect the next one.” Now why can I never do that?