Sunday, March 18, 2001
Woods back in a familiar spot
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Tiger Woods wasn't
about to let one bad swing keep him from where he wanted to be
— in the lead Saturday at the Bay Hill Invitational, and
in position to win for the first time this year.
After hitting into the water and making
bogey on the easiest hole at Bay Hill, Woods made an immediate
and spectacular recovery. He hit a 4-iron from 210 yards into
a stiff breeze to about 10 inches on the par-3 17th and wound
up with a 6-under 66.
That was enough to give him a one-stroke
lead over Sergio Garcia going into the final round, which will
start early Sunday because of an approaching storm system.
Woods was at 12-under 204, and had the outright
lead after 54 holes for the first time in 10 PGA Tour events,
dating to the NEC Invitational in August.
Garcia, who beat Woods in a made-for-TV
match play event in California seven months ago, hit his approach
into the 18th hole to about 4 feet for birdie and had a 68.
But this will hardly be a match-play situation.
Chris Perry had a 69 and, at 206, will join
Woods and Garcia in the final group.
Another stroke back was Masters champion
Vijay Singh, while a large group at 208 includes Phil Mickelson
and Greg Norman, playing his first PGA Tour event this year.
Scott McCarron had a chance to catch Woods
until hitting into the water on the 18th hole and taking triple
bogey to fall back into the large group at 208.
Conditions were perfect, with a cloud cover
keeping the course soft and a breeze slowly gaining strength as
the afternoon wore on. Only 22 of the 71 players failed to break
par.
Woods, the defending champion at Bay Hill,
started his final round two strokes out of the lead but looked
early on like the player who won nine times and three straight
majors last year.
He birdied six of his first 11 holes, and
perhaps the biggest one was a 12-footer on the par-3 seventh.
It was the kind of putt that had been sliding by or lipping out
all year, but this one broke gently from left to right and dropped
in.
“I had momentum on my side,” Woods
said. “I just hopped on and rode it.”
By the end of the day, the lead wasn't quite
the size Woods expected, but he had few complaints. He had a three-stroke
lead going into the final three holes, but after a 15-minute wait
on the 16th tee, his drive found the left bunker.
From 195 yards out and the hole below the
huge ridge on the green, Woods hit 5-iron and hung it out to the
right. What followed was the hollow sound of “kerplunk”
as the ball landed in the murky pond.
Woods dropped into deep rough, hacked over
the water to 45 feet and two-putted for bogey. Standing on the
17th tee, he stared at the ground and finally broke the silence
by asking his caddie for the yardage.
The shot was pure from the start, holding
its line against the breeze and stopped inside a foot from the
hole as the gallery roared.
“It was one of those shots where you
feel nothing coming off the shaft,” Woods said. “You
hit it and start walking.”
Woods will try to become only the second
player to win the Bay Hill Invitational consecutively. Loren Roberts
did it in 1994-95. More importantly, a victory would be the perfect
answer for those continually asking Woods what's wrong with his
game.
While Woods hasn't won his last eight PGA
Tour events, he has not finished lower than 13th during that stretch,
either.
“It's hard to be disappointed when
your first six tournaments, you're 75-under par,” he said.
“That's not bad. I just didn't win, and that's part of the
game.”
Garcia has not won an official tournament
since his sensational rookie season two years ago. He won twice
in Europe, became the youngest player ever on a Ryder Cup team
and nearly took down Woods in the PGA Championship at Medinah.
“I'm just happy to have a chance to
win the tournament,” Garcia said. “If I'm able to win
the tournament, I'll also beat Tiger. But if I beat Tiger, I might
not win the tournament.”
Perry might have to make an adjustment for
the final round — actually seeing a gallery lining the fairway.
He played in the final twosome Saturday with Paul Goydos, the
third-round leader who had a 73, and the course nearly emptied
out following Woods.
“It felt like it was a practice round,”
Perry said.
It will be the real deal Sunday, a chance
for Perry to win for the first time since the 1998 B.C. Open;
a chance for Garcia to beat Woods when it counts; and a chance
for Woods to just win.
Divots:
Chris Perry has been wearing a hat without a logo all season,
so he added his own on Saturday — Arnold Palmer's autograph,
and about pins of the Bay Hill logo, a colorful umbrella. ...
Vijay Singh was paired with Paul Azinger, notable only because
they are the only two players who use a long putter that sticks
into their belly as they putt. ... Mark Calcavecchia became the
latest victim on the par-5 sixth hole, where John Daly once made
an 18 and Fuzzy Zoeller on Thursday took a 10. Calcavecchia hit
two balls in the water trying to reach the green and made a 9.
Two off the lead at the time, he finished with a 75 and was nine
strokes back.
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