Chris Park / AP

Tiger Woods celebrates his birdie on the 11th hole Sunday at the Buick Invitational. Woods shot a 1-under 71 to win by eight strokes.

It was a powerful message to the rest of the PGA Tour, even if it was unintentional.

“They can look at it however they want to look at it,” Woods said. “I know that I’m trying to win and trying to improve and trying to get better.”

The only surprise was the weather, a pleasant one at that.

The forecast was for heavy rain overnight and into Sunday, with the possibility of a Monday finish. But the clouds cleared as Woods was warming up, and he played the front nine under brilliant blue skies. Only on the back nine did clouds return and temperatures plunge. He closed out his victory under a mixture of rain and clouds, and smile that showed all was right in his world.

“He’s just much better,” said Couples, who posted his first top-10 finish since the 2006 Masters. “It’s fun to see. I’ve been on tour for 28 years, and I’ve never seen this stuff.”

Rory Sabbatini also had a 67 to tie for third with Stewark Cink (73).

“I’d say this is the best I’ve seen him play,” Cink said. “The last couple days, off the tee, the control he had was just really very impressive. The Tiger that we saw a year and two years ago, hitting it sort of all over the place, I think that’s a thing of the past. He’s got it geared down and he came out and played really well.”

Justin Leonard closed with a 72 to finish alone in fifth, 12 shots behind. Phil Mickelson also made his 2008 debut this week, but was slowed by illness and was never a factor. He shot 71 on Sunday and tied for sixth with Durant (75).

“Nobody thought too much about winning,” Mickelson said.

Divots: Woods won in California for the 12th time, the most of any state. Florida is second with 10 victories. ... Kevin Streelman, who played in the final group Saturday as the final alternate to get in the Buick Invitational, went 75-77 on the weekend and tied for 29th. ... Only seven players broke par in the final round. ... Woods has won six times each at the Buick Invitational, Bridgestone Invitational and the CA Championship, the latter two World Golf Championships events.