Tuesday, November 7, 2000
Mickelson stops Tiger again
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ATLANTA (AP) — Phil Mickelson got the
duel he wanted and the results only he expected.
No one could question his ability to win
the Tour Championship on Sunday, especially since he was only
one stroke out of the lead.
The only problem was the guy he was chasing.
Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world,
had an impressive streak in his favor. In the last 19 tournaments
in which he has had at least a share of the 54-hole lead, Woods
had never lost.
Leave it to Mickelson to stop another streak.
Nine months after he ended Woods' string
of six straight PGA Tour victories, Mickelson became the first
player in four years to overcome Woods in the final round. He
closed with a 4-under-par 66 that had a strong start and a solid
finish and won by two strokes over Woods.
“I really didn't expect him to win,”
said Mickelson, who had a 267 and broke by one stroke the Tour
Championship record set by Tom Watson in the inaugural event for
the top 30 players on the money list.
“I thought I had a pretty good chance,”
Mickelson said. “And I really liked the position I was in,
one group in front and having them watch me make birdies. To shoot
4 under on the front can be difficult to follow.”
That's was Mickelson's game plan, and he
followed it to perfection.
He figured if he could get into the lead,
Woods would have to keep up with him. For once, he wasn't up to
the challenge.
Woods struggled off the tee throughout the
final round, missing seven of 14 fairways. He failed to make the
putts that have fallen all year, lipping out three times on the
front and missing a critical 12-foot birdie putt on the 15th.
It was the first time since the Quad City
Classic, his third tournament as a professional, that Woods failed
to win after taking a lead into the final round.
“I've had a loot of good things go
my way,” Woods said. “I've been able to make key shots
at the right times, and it has added into victories. Sometimes,
I have played poorly coming down the stretch and have somehow
snuck out a win.”
This wasn't one of them.
Woods started the final round tied at 10
under with Masters champion Vijay Singh, but it quickly became
a duel between Woods and Mickelson, the top two players on the
money list.
Singh had a 73 and tied for third at 7-under
273 with Nick Price (67) and Ernie Els (69).
It was a dramatic battle, similar to the
way the PGA Tour's year started when Woods and Els battled their
way into a playoff in Hawaii, which Woods won.
The difference at East Lake Golf Club was
that Woods and Mickelson were not in the same group, which is
just the way Mickelson wanted it — away from the hype, away
from getting overly concerned with just one player, and able to
set the agenda.
He took the lead when Woods failed to save
par from a bunker on No. 3, and Woods had to birdie the final
three holes on the front nine just to stay within a stroke of
Mickelson.
Thanks to two bogeys by Mickelson, they
were tied at 12 under going to the par-5 15th, which Woods can
reach with a 2-iron and a 4-iron off the tee.
“We were even with four holes to go,
and that's where each shot was critical,” Mickelson said.
He hit into the bunker on his approach,
blasted to 8 feet and made the putt for birdie. Woods was left
of the green, and his chip ran 12 feet by. He missed it coming
back.
“To make that one and force him to
make birdie to tie is a lot different that forcing him to make
birdie for a one-shot lead,” Mickelson said.
That gave him a huge edge, and left Woods
no room for error. That wasn't a good position for Woods to be,
considering how shaky he had played throughout a cloudy afternoon.
He missed another fairway on the 16th and was able to hit it close
for a birdie chance.
“If you just look at 15 as being a
pivotal hole, I think that's doing an injustice to some of the
shots I hit prior to that,” Woods said, alluding to any number
of wayward drives or his pitching wedge from the fairway that
missed the green on No. 14.
And there was one more errant shot left
in his bag.
From a fairway bunker on the 17th Woods
pulled his 9-iron left of the green into shin-high grass close
to the lake, with a branch on his ball. He chopped it out 45 feet
past the hole and took bogey. His last hope at that point was
an ace on the 239-yard 18th.
Given the year he has had, no one put it
past him. His 3-iron was 10 feet away, and Woods missed that one,
too.
“That's the way it goes when you don't
have your best stuff,” Woods said. “I grinded my butt
off just to give myself a chance.”
Mickelson earned $900,000 from the $5 million
purse and won for the fourth time this year.
Woods will go to Spain with a chance to
join Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead as the only players
to win at least 10 times in one year. A victory in the World Golf
Championship also would make him golf's first $10 million man.
“It would be nice if I did,” Woods
said. “But the fact that I won three majors in one year is
not a bad thing, either.”
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