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DEL.ICIO.USWith one putt, Woods separates self from field
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Orlando — Tiger Woods and four other guys, some you don’t know too well, played into the last round at Bay Hill Sunday on even ground. Vijay Singh — you know him— Bart Bryant — you may have forgotten him — Sean O’Hair and Bubba Watson stood in a row at the top of the leaderboard, 6-under par. Each had his shot. This could be his day. Beat Tiger and take home Arnold Palmer’s Invitational trophy, to be presented by Arnie himself. There were some exciting possibilities on that scoreboard before us.
Not only just those five overnight leaders. But as the day wore on and warmed up at Bay Hill, more challengers began to join the firing from the wing. Tiger couldn’t shake the crowd. If it wasn’t one, it was another, and he was showing signs that he might be had. Bryant had seen it before, and he had taken him — by six strokes in the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club in 2005.
As it turned out, it would be Bryant who stuck to him like a barnacle down to the final stroke. Along the way, though, challengers kept rising up, firing and falling back. Hunter Mahan, former national amateur champion, came on like a runaway train before finding trouble. Ken Duke, a 39-year-old sophomore on the tour, rose up and made a flourish. But coming from farther out was a local veteran, Cliff Kresge, a last-minute addition to the field. He shook his cloak of journeyman and with a round of 67 turned in the best finish of his pro career, a tie for third at 273.
But the challenger who never gave ground was Bryant, ranked No. 137th in the world. It was the same Bryant who had known the feeling of taking Tiger in the Tour Championship. He was in the pairing just ahead of Woods and finished his day with a 67, 9-under-par 271 for the weekend at Arnie’s place.
Then there was nothing left but to wait for Tiger’s finish, and put a finish on it, Tiger did. His putting had been somewhat erratic over the day, and on the 18th green he faced about a 25-footer for the whole shebang. Bryant waited in the scorer’s tent.
“I didn’t have to see it,” he said. “I knew the crowd would tell me, and they did.”
It was the second such finish for Woods on the same hole, same tournament. In 2001, he sank the winning putt on the 18th green, and that time his victim wasn’t the 137th in the world, it was Phil Mickelson. Mickelson was here this week, but far out of the running. Woods finished with a 10-under 270.
Woods was on the edge of his game most of the weekend, and said so. He three-putted the 10th green from seven feet, and the chase was on. Bryant bogeyed the 11th, birdied the 12th, then the 15th, and the sprint to the wire was on. When Woods sank the deciding putt, he flew in a state of exhilaration, cap came off and he flung it to the ground.
Later, he said, “Stevie [his caddie] handed me my cap and I said, ‘How the hell did my cap come off?’ ” He was, indeed, lost in the exhilaration of it all.
Standing in the scorer’s cabin, watching it all, was Bryant with the man who had been his official scorer. And when the roar of the crowd split the air, Bryant said to his companion, “Man, that guy is good.”
And the curtain dropped on another dramatic scene at Bay Hill, starring Eldrick Woods.
Comments
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By cecil renfield
March 16, 2008 11:48 PM | Link to this
TIGER WOODS; IN ONE SIMPLE WORD;
I M P R E G N A B L E !
By tiger shiok
March 17, 2008 3:05 AM | Link to this
tiger has his winning streak to continue, so has the houston rocket.
keep them up, both!
good things seem hard to last, but if they do, thanks GOD for them.