Woods hangs on for victory as putter stays hot
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Tiger Woods stumbled on the back nine but still hung on to win the $6.4 million Wachovia Championship by two strokes on Sunday.
"This week I didn't really have my best stuff," Woods told reporters after securing a battling victory over fellow American Steve Stricker in testing winds on the demanding Quail Hollow course.
The world No. 1 used a three-hole purple patch on the front nine to build a three-shot lead at the turn, and had the luxury of double bogeying the par-three 13th without surrendering the lead.
It was far from his most impressive performance, but he still carded a closing 69 to finish at 13-under-par 275, recording his 57th victory on the PGA Tour, and third in six starts this year.
Stricker (69) held on to finish second, despite a double bogey at the 16th and a bogey at the last, with a birdie at the 17th wedged in between. Phil Mickelson (70) and third round leader Rory Sabbatini (74) tied for third, four strokes behind Woods.
"I didn't hit it quite as well as I wanted, but it was good enough," said Woods, who received $1,134,000 to jump to the top of the PGA Tour money list, as well as the FedEx Cup points table.
He credited his victory to a hot putter, which ranked him second behind Stricker on the greens.
"I made a lot of putts this week," he said. "I made some nice crucial par putts, from six-to-eight feet, putts you have to make."
Woods started the final round a stroke behind Sabbatini, before taking the lead with an eagle at the par-five seventh, which he admitted had its element of good fortune.
His drive stopped perilously close to the lake right of the fairway, but he took advantage, lofting a seven-iron to the back of the green before sinking a 60-foot putt.
"It should have been probably six on that hole, because I lost my tee shot to the right and I don't know how it didn't go in the water," he said.
"It should have been wet. All of a sudden I had a perfect lie. But I ended up on the top shelf (of the green) and I was just trying to two-putt from there and it happened to go in."
Buoyed by that combination of skill and good fortune, Woods birdied the next two holes to go three shots clear at the turn.
A sloppy bogey at the par-five 10th did not help his cause and an even softer double bogey at the par-three 13th opened the door for his rivals, but no one could take advantage over the tough, windswept closing stretch.
Stricker briefly tied for the lead with a birdie at the par-five 15th, but promptly dropped two shots at the next.
After Woods, playing behind, also birdied the 15th, he only had to avoid disaster down the stretch to win.
"If I had the lead through 15, I figured if I parred in I'd probably win, because in these conditions you figure probably no-one is going to play those three last holes under par," he said.
He figured correctly, winning for the first time in North Carolina.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/08/2007 page24)
