After Tiger Woods’s first round 71 in the Buick Open on Thursday, my father-in-law was straight on the phone. “I see your man Woods is seven behind some guy called Watney,” he said.

“Okay,” I replied, “but let’s talk Sunday evening and see where he is then.”

Tiger has something of a reputation for never giving up, of course, and I suspected that first round washout, on a course begging to be taken advantage of, might prompt a few fireworks.

A seven-birdie, two-eagle 61 followed on Friday, and after yesterday’s 66, which saw him come home in 29 strokes, Tiger eventually wound up at 268, 20 under par.

Good for second place.

Standing in the way of Woods’s fifth trophy this year was Vijay Singh, who, with a four-round total of 264, became the first three-time winner of the Buick Open and the second to win it back-to-back. It was the Fijian’s fourth PGA Tour title of 2005, his 16th since turning 40, his 28th overall, and his 50th career win worldwide. But more important than these figures, perhaps, was that the win nipped re-emerging talk of Tiger taking over the game, as he did in 2000, very much in the bud.

Paired together on Saturday, Singh beat the world’s no. 1 by seven shots in a face-to-face showdown that might yet prove more significant than the outcome of this tournament.

Then, with Woods breathing down his neck on the back nine of the final round yesterday, Singh slotted calmly into autopilot, recording not a single bogey. It required someone with Singh’s composure to resist Tiger’s electrifying charge, and while composure may not be his middle name, it certainly is Singh’s 15th club.

After hearing the roar that followed Tiger’s birdie on the 17th, Singh addressed his 270-yard second to the 16th and middled it, the ball carrying pin high into a greenside bunker from which he got up and down without so much as a pensive tug on his little goatee. Two solid pars to finish saw him glide to a four-shot victory.

Strangely, given his inconsistency with the flat stick this season, it was the quality of Singh’s putting – he ranked first with an average of 1.6 putts per Green in Regulation – that proved the clincher, as opposed to his driving accuracy. What the Singh/Woods one-two proved beyond any doubt, in fact, is that driving accuracy had little or no effect on the outcome of the tournament, and that it has become little more than an afterthought in the modern game.

Neither Woods nor Singh can hit the driver terribly straight, but that didn’t seem to matter at a venue clearly designed to ensure low scoring. Woods fought his old tendency of blocking the ball to the right at times, and found the short grass just 57.1% of the time. He still managed to find 72.2% of the greens, however. Singh, meanwhile, found fewer fairways (53.6%) but even more greens (83.3%).

Only one of the top 11 finishers, in fact, placed among the week’s 15 straightest drivers and Sean O’Hair – who wound up in a tie for eighth place – finished 76th out of the 79 players who played all four rounds in driving accuracy.

These figures aren’t unusual. Woods, the leading money winner, hit the same percentage of fairways at Warwick Hills as he has all year, and his GIR stat was virtually identical, too. Singh averaged significantly fewer fairways during the week than he has all season, but still won.

You wouldn’t expect such inaccuracy off the tee to go unpunished at the PGA Championship, the year’s fourth and last major championship, in two weeks time. Baltusrol’s Lower Course will stretch to a mammoth 7,400 yards and play to a scrooge-like par of 70.And the tall grass – though not as punishing as typical USGA rough that has the field up in arms and bruising their wrists every year at the US Open – should be considerably less cordial than the sparse, 2-inch stuff the players breezed through at the Buick. Indeed, players at the PGA will need to consult their caddies or their course planner to identify the best line off the tee before simply standing up to the ball, teeing it high, and swinging out of their shoes.

With Ernie Els out of action for the rest of the year and Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen not enjoying their best seasons, it is quite conceivable the PGA will turn into another Woods/Singh showdown at Baltusrol. Both will need to hit a few more fairways, though, and Singh must continue to work on his inconsistent putting. But both are scoring well and enjoy that all-important intimidation factor.

And after what transpired this weekend at Warwick Hills, Vijay Singh is one-up on Tiger Woods.