Tuesday May 14, 2013

Woods silences Garcia after winning golf’s richest prize by two strokes

Roaring support: Fans celebrate as Tiger Woods makes a birdie putt on the seventh green during the final round of The Players Championships at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, on Sunday. — EPA

TIGER Woods shook off a double bogey at the 14th hole on Sunday and held on to win the US PGA Tour Players Championship, setting another career milestone in the process.

Woods, who had a share of the lead with Sergio Garcia and David Lingmerth after completing the weather-disrupted third round on Sunday morning, carded a final-round 70 for a 13-under 275.

That put him two strokes in front of Swedish PGA Tour rookie Lingmerth, Jeff Maggert and Kevin Streelman.

Garcia, tied for the lead at the 17th, finished with a quadruple bogey and a bogey, giving Woods the last laugh after a couple of days of verbal sparring by the two.

The victory earned Woods golf’s richest prize of US$1.71mil, pushing his season total to over US$5.8mil in just seven tournaments. This is the 12th season he has won at least four times — that used to be the standard of a great year before he joined the PGA Tour in 1996 — and this was his quickest he has reached four wins in a year.

Woods won The Players for the first time since 2001 and joined Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton and Steve Elkington as the only two-time winners at the TPC Sawgrass. It was his 78th career win on the PGA Tour, four short of the record held by Sam Snead.

His 78th win came in his 300th start — he also won in his 100th and 200th starts.

Woods had built a two-stroke lead through 13 holes of the final round, but he found the water off the tee at 14 and ended up with a double-bogey that dropped him into a four-way tie for the lead with Maggert, Garcia and Lingmerth.

Garcia and Lingmerth, playing in the final group right behind Woods, had both just birdied 13.

“Just hit absolutely the worst shot I could possibly hit,” Woods said of his tee shot at 14. “But it was the only bad swing I made all day. I told myself I could still win the tournament.”

It also was the second time Woods has won on Mother’s Day.

“Sorry, Mom,” he said into the camera. “I think she might have had a heart attack. I was in control of the tournament, and I just hit the worst shot I could possibly hit.”

Typical of Woods these days, there were questions about where he took the drop — some 255 yards from the hole. NBC Sports analyst Johnny Miller suggested it was a “borderline” where he took the drop. But Mark Russell, vice president of competition for the PGA Tour, said there was nothing wrong with the drop. Woods conferred with Casey Wittenberg, who said there was “no doubt” that Woods took the drop in the right spot.

“He asked me exactly where it crossed,” Wittenberg said. “I told him I thought it crossed on the corner of the bunker, right where he took his drop. And it’s all good.”

Woods wound up with a double bogey, and he nearly fell out of the lead on the 15th until he saved par with an eight-foot putt. He followed with another up-and-down from the bunker on the par-five 16th for birdie. Garcia, playing in the final group behind Woods, two-putted the 16th to regain a share of the lead and then walked over to the 17th tee where it ended with two swings.

Garcia said before the final round he was happy not to be playing in the same group with Woods.

“I think it’s probably good for both of us,” said Garcia after the pair’s uneasy relationship took another hit on Saturday when the Spaniard complained that a move by Woods to remove a club from his bag just as Garcia was hitting a shot sparked distracting crowd noise.

Garcia was in the water twice en route to a quadruple-bogey seven, then took a double-bogey at 18 to cap a four-over 76 that left him tied for eighth on seven-under 281.

Maggert fell back with a double-bogey at 17, closing with a two-under 70 for 11-under 277. Streelman carded a 67 to grab his share of second on 277.

Lingmerth was the last player with a chance to challenge Woods, but he was unable to convert his birdie attempt at 17 and pull level and he closed with a bogey for an even-par 72 for 277.

On Sunday morning, Garcia said Woods is “not the nicest guy on the Tour.”

Woods had the last laugh. He had the trophy. — Agencies

RESULTS

Leading final round scores (USA unless noted):

275: Tiger Woods 67-67-71-70; 277: Kevin Streelman 69-70-71-67, Jeff Maggert 70-71-66-70, David Lingmerth (Swe) 68-68-69-72; 278: Martin Laird (Sco) 71-67-73-67, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68-67-71-72, Ryan Palmer 67-69-70-72; 281: Ben Crane 69-71-72-69, Rory McIlroy (Nir) 66-72-73-70, Brandt Snedeker 71-69-71-70, Marc Leishman (Aus) 72-66-71-72, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69-66-74-72, Casey Wittenberg 67-69-70-75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 68-65-72-76; 282: Jimmy Walker 72-71-72-67, Tim Herron 71-69-74-68, Webb Simpson 67-71-74-70, Brendon de Jonge (Zim) 72-69-70-71; 283: Jason Day (Aus) 69-75-71-68, Luke Donald (Eng) 72-69-73-69, Zach Johnson 66-71-76-70, Adam Scott (Aus) 69-68-75-71, Roberto Castro 63-78-71-71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69-75-67-72, Hunter Mahan 67-70-71-75; 284: Graham DeLaet (Can) 71-70-74-69, David Hearn (Can) 72-71-71-70, James Driscoll 75-68-70-71, Matt Every 70-71-71-72, Daniel Summerhays 69-74-69-72, Jeff Overton 71-70-69-74, David Lynn (Eng) 72-68-68-76.

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