With apologies to Amen Corner, which has its own special place in the game’s history at Augusta National, the closing holes here provide their own kind of drama when the tournament is on the line at The Players Championship.
So there
was Tiger Woods, his ball safely on the front of the 17th green, listening to the crowd roar as Sergio birdied the 16th hole, stealing a peek across the water that separates the two greens, then hearing the crescendo of noise again as his weekend foil approached the 17th tee.“We’ve seen amazing things happen there at 16 and 17,” Woods said. “I was hoping I would be on the good side of it.”
For the first time in more than 10 years, Woods played those holes on a Sunday with something at stake.
He birdied the 16th by getting up and down from the front bunker. He two-putted from 45 feet at the 17th, coaxing a putt that broke some 15 feet, up near the hole. And then he striped a 3-wood off the 18th tee to set up the par that clinched the tournament.
It was his first win here since 2001, his fourth victory this year and seventh in his past 21 stroke-play starts on the PGA Tour.
Behind him, Garcia knocked two balls in the water at the 17th. Jeff Maggert, 49, who had posted only one top-three finish in the past seven years, rinsed one there in front of Woods.
Rookie David Lingmerth gamely knocked his approach to 8 feet, only to miss the putt that would have tied — then bogeyed the last when he needed a birdie. Kevin Streelman, who tied for second with Maggert and Lingmerth, birdied the 16th and 17th, but he had begun the day five strokes back.
In the end, when he needed the shots the most, Woods executed them, shooting a final-round 70 when only one other player among the top 15 starting the final round managed to break par.
Save for a 14th-hole blip that allowed a slew of people back into the tournament, Woods was on his game, looking as good as he has from tee to green since he started winning tournaments again 14 months ago.
“I hit it high, low, left-to-right, right-to-left, whatever I wanted,” Woods said. “Except for that tee shot at 14, I didn’t really miss a whole lot of shots. I pured a lot of putts, too. Could have been something pretty low today.”
For Woods, the key is always being able to work the ball in different directions. That is when he feels the best about his swing, and in truth, he has not had the ability in recent years.
Casey Wittenberg, who played the final round with Woods, was also alongside earlier this year at Torrey Pines. He was also paired with Woods last summer at the U.S. Open, where Woods shared the 36-hole lead but blew up on the weekend, falling to a tie for 21st. There, Wittenberg said, Woods was unable to hit a draw, a shot he played to perfection Sunday off the tee on the 18th hole.
“His game has definitely progressed,” Wittenberg said. “It’s getting better and better each time I see it. I thought he played fairly well at Torrey, especially with his iron game. I know this golf course doesn’t really stress him out as far as having to make him hit drivers. But all in all, he was pretty zipped up and had very good control over the golf ball and made a few putts.”espn
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