Tiger Woods once again affirmed why he is the most dominant athlete in golf today with his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
When the final round began five golfers were tied for the lead, with Woods among them. When the 18th green cleared, only Woods remained atop the leader board after a dramatic birdie on the final hole. Yet Sunday wasn’t the typical runaway train Woods usually boards. Bart Bryant played a strong back nine in the group ahead of Woods and posted a final score of -9 forcing Woods to par the final hole to tie or birdie to win. After a perfect drive and an accurate approach, there was little doubt as to where the 22 foot downhill putt would end up.
The final moments seemed a blur as Woods hit a perfect putt which trickled into the hole for the win. Woods turned to the gallery, slammed his hat to the ground, and raised his arms to victory in typical dramatic fashion. "I was just trying to make sure I got the speed right. Now that green has a little bit more grass on it, and the grain has a little bit more effect on it, and I gave it just a little bit more. I hit the putt down there, and it took forever to start breaking and for the grain to start taking it; but once it started taking it, it went straight right and went in the hole," said Woods.
Many critics have chastised the rank-and-file PGA Tour for folding whenever Tiger is in the mix. That argument did not hold water yesterday as Bart Bryant’s final round 67 pushed Tiger Woods to make birdie on the difficult 18th hole for the win. Bryant said, "It was in his hands, and obviously hit a good shot and a great putt… I did what I thought I was supposed to do, which was put the pressure back on Tiger to make the play and he has habit of making it when he needs to."
The final putt on 18 was in similar a place to where Woods sunk a putt to beat Phil Mickelson just a few years before. Woods drew on that confidence to exorcise the putting demons which prevented him from making a putt longer than 21 feet all week: "I kept telling myself, I’ve done this before, I did it against Phil, and this time it’s a little bit deeper into the green and the putt has a little bit more break and it has a little more grain; I’ve done it before and I can do it again," said Woods.
After this win, Woods has legitimized his goals once again. The grand slam of golf looks tangible. Woods is now six consecutive victories away from tying Byron Nelson’s record of 11 wins in a row. Who knows how far Tiger Woods will go this season, all we can do is watch and enjoy the ride.
