Monday, March 26, 2001
Woods meets another challenge
to win Players
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Tiger
Woods crouched and cupped his hands over his brow to study the
slope in his 45-foot eagle putt on the 16th hole. Out of the corner
of his eye, across the water to a tiny patch of land, he could
see his final challenge.
Vijay Singh rolled in a short birdie putt
on the island-green 17th, and Woods' lead was down to one. If
there were any more questions about his game or his ability to
thrive under pressure, he answered them quickly.
Woods' eagle putt broke three directions
before lipping out, and he tapped in for birdie. He found land
— just barely — on the 17th green and saved par with
a 6-foot putt, then cruised home to a one-stroke victory Monday
in The Players Championship.
“To be able to win a championship like
this on an extremely demanding golf course, with probably the
best field assembled in all of golf ... it's extremely rewarding,”
said Woods, who closed with a 5-under 67.
Singh twice challenged Woods over the nine-hole
sprint to the finish. He was within one stroke until a triple
bogey on the 14th, then made a late charge by using the toe-end
of his putter to make a 25-foot eagle on the 16th.
It wasn't enough, nor was his birdie on
the 17th.
“One bad swing. That's all it took,”
said Singh, who had a 68. “Under the gun, you know that you
cannot make mistakes.”
Woods now goes to Augusta National with
a load of confidence as he tries to become the first player to
hold all four major championships at the same time.
“I'm headed in the right direction,
no doubt about that,” Woods said. “Looking at the trophies
that I have on my mantle, three are lined up. Put another one
on there, it looks pretty good.”
So do his chances of winning the Masters.
What better way to prepare than by winning
The Players Championship, the only prestigious tournament that
had been missing from his credentials.
Woods earned $1,080,000, his fourth $1 million
payoff on the PGA Tour, to move to the top of the money list.
And after his wild and dramatic victory at Bay Hill last week,
he now has won back-to-back starts for the seventh time in his
career.
No one in 28 years has ever won The Players
Championship and the Masters in the same year, not even close.
Not many would bet against Woods.
“I kind of expected everything I saw,”
said Jerry Kelly, who spent the final 18 holes over two days paired
with Woods. “He's the best player in the world. He showed
it.”
Kelly proved he could play, too, despite
losing his two-stroke lead over nine holes Sunday and never threatening
to get it back. He closed with a 73, making a double bogey on
the last hole that dropped him to fourth place, a $60,000 mistake.
“Good week, good check, so what?”
said Kelly, who has never won in 175 starts on tour. “We
all want to win.”
Bernhard Langer completed a 67 and finished
third at 276.
The final round was suspended Sunday after
nine holes because of rain delays, and Woods had a one-stroke
lead after making a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 9.
When they returned to still, sunny conditions,
Woods wasted no time taking control.
His 7-iron from 164 yards landed 6 feet
behind the flag and spun back to 2 inches for a tap-in birdie.
He then hit a sand wedge from 60 yards into 8 feet for a birdie
on No. 12.
Singh stayed with him, making a 3-foot birdie
putt on the 13th.
But the Masters champ tried to shape his
drive from left-to-right on the 467-yard 14th and pulled it into
the water. He dropped at the front of the tee box and hit into
the fairway, then hit 6-iron into an awkward spot in the clumpy
rough right of the green.
When Singh failed to get up-and-down from
there, he had a triple bogey and the tournament was firmly in
Woods' grasp.
The only close call came on the 17th.
The pin was to the right of the island,
and Woods' 9-iron drifted perilously close to the edge with the
prevailing breeze. It hopped over to the right and stopped in
the rough, the ball barely touching the yellow paint of the hazard.
“I knew I hit it the right distance,”
Woods said. “I saw it bounce and said, 'No big deal.'”
Unable to ground his club, Woods' chip came
up 6 feet short. He made the par putt to maintain his two-stroke
lead, then made a conservative bogey after hitting 2-iron off
the tee into the right rough.
The 17th is where Woods first rose to fame
in 1994 when he won the U.S. Amateur on the TPC at Sawgrass. His
tee shot just stayed on the back of the green, and his birdie
putt gave him the lead over Trip Kuehne.
Just like then, everything seems to be falling
in Woods' direction at just the right time.
That wasn't the case earlier in the year,
when the putts turned away from the hole or the approach into
the 18th green at Dubai found water for double bogey instead of
land for a victory. Still, he never was far from the lead.
“I felt like I was playing some pretty
good golf over the last few months,” Woods said. “It's
just that you need to have some good breaks come your way. You
have to have a little luck on your side, and I think that's what
has transpired over the last couple of weeks.”
As for that so-called slump?
“I've won two tournaments in a row,”
Woods said. “I'm sure they'll write about something else.”
If he can make it three in a row, Woods
will write himself into the history books again.
Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address)
of This Story to A Friend:
|
