Wednesday, November
6, 2002
Singh's
birdies keep Woods, others away at Tour Championship
By Bill Nichols
The Dallas Morning News (KRT)
ATLANTA - Vijay Singh
has had his share of frustration at East Lake Golf Club. He lost
in a playoff and finished third in the two previous Tour Championships
here.
On Sunday, Singh
finally got to celebrate. He won his first Tour Championship in
resounding fashion, shooting a 67 to beat
Charles Howell III
by two strokes. Tiger Woods, struggling with his driver, shot
70 to tie for seventh.
In settling his score
with East Lake, Singh scored one for the veterans by beating Howell,
23.
Four months shy of
his 40th birthday, Singh finished the season with two victories
and a career-high $3,756,563 in earnings, including $900,000 on
Sunday.
That will place him
third on the final money list behind Woods and Phil Mickelson,
Singh's best finish since placing second in 1998.
"Look out, I'm
not done yet," Singh said.
Singh does not plan
to fade away anytime soon. He credits his longevity to two-a-day
workouts that have him hitting the ball with more power than ever.
On Sunday, he often
out-drove the long-hitting Howell.
"I'm almost
twice his age and hitting as long as he is," Singh said.
"Everybody says once you reach 40, that's the end of that,
you've got to think about the Senior Tour
. I want to compete
as long as I can."
Singh said Saturday
that this course owed him. But he said he never thought about
his playoff loss to Hal Sutton in 1998, or losing the lead to
Mickelson in 2000.
After playing the
first eight holes at 1 over, Singh birdied the next three holes
to take control. He had a few tense moments, but those didn't
last long. When he birdied No. 11 to reach 11 under, Singh never
let his lead dip below two.
"I was real
focused on what I was going to do," he said. "I wasn't
worried about anything else."
By earning $540,000
for second, Howell will probably finish ninth on the money list
after pocketing more than $1.4 million in his final four starts.
He was the only player
this week to break par in each round. But his 66 on Sunday was
not enough to overcome Singh, who entered the final round with
a three-shot lead.
"It seemed like
every time I hit a good shot, especially on the back nine, he
was right there to answer it," Howell said. "It would
have taken a 63 to beat him, and that's a hard score to come by."
Singh, though, felt
some pressure. With calm conditions and players allowed to lift,
clean and place in the fairways, scores were low.
Jerry Kelly, started
six shots back, was 2 under on the front nine, then made a hole-in-one
on 11. That got him to 7 under, one shot behind until Singh made
his first birdie on the par-5 No. 9. Kelly finished fourth. And
David Toms shot 67 to finish third.
But the world's top
two players never made a charge. Woods hit only four fairways,
and Mickelson made only one birdie while shooting 69.
"It was just
one of those days when I just couldn't get the ball in play,"
Woods said. "I figured if I could shoot
something like 30
on the back nine, I might have a chance. But he birdied 9, 10
and 11."
___
©
2002, The Dallas Morning News.
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The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
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by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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