Woods makes it happen at Arnold Palmer

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational | Round Four | 30 Mar 2009

As Tiger Woods stood over his 16 foot putt at the 72nd hole of the Arnold Palmer Championship at Bay Hill Golf and Resort today there was a certain air of inevitably about the outcome. Woods had been in this same situation on many occasions in tournament golf and indeed in this very event, needing the putt to win and as great champions do, he found a way to make it happen.

It was perhaps just as well for the event that the tournament finished there as there was little chance of sufficient light being available for many, if any, playoff holes given the delayed start to proceedings on the final day.

For Woods it was his sixth victory in the event and this may well have been his sweetest. The shot he hit to the last in 2008 and the putt that followed were very special but given that this was the litmus test for the state of his game heading into Augusta National in two weeks time, this victory was particularly timely.

Sean O’Hair appeared to have a mortgage on the event heading into the final round. He has enjoyed a special relationship with Bay Hill having played a lot of junior golf there as an amateur and often playing well in here including a third place last year after a third round of 63.

O’Hair made a slow start to the final round dropping two shots in the first seven holes but a birdie at the 9th still had him enjoying a two shot cushion with nine holes to play. Perhaps enjoy is not quite the right word as, with Tiger Woods watching your every move and being able to respond accordingly, he still faced a mammoth task if he was to get across the line.

Several crucial moments came during the middle of the back nine. Woods got up and down from an almost impossible lie in the bunker at the 14th to stay within one shot, birdied the 15th from 25 feet to draw level and then produced a brilliant up and down par save from 90 yards at the 16th to move one ahead after O’Hair found the water with his second and took bogey.

A bogey at the 17th by Woods to a rock solid par by O’Hair set up a drama filled final hole. Both players found the fairway from the tee at the potentially dangerous par four and O’Hair was first to play. His 7 iron was pulled left some 40 feet from the hole. Woods approach from 161 yards with a 7 iron also finished 16 feet short and left of the hole. O’Hair’s putt for birdie finished two feet short and the centre stage was Tiger’s.

In fading light and amongst a wall of flashing cameras his putt dropped and USPGA Tour title number 66 was his.

“It feels great, said Woods. “As I look back at my three tournaments I’ve played this year, I’ve gotten better at each one, and that was the whole idea was to keep progressing to Augusta. I was hoping I could get my game where I could feel hitting shots again because I’d been only on the range and at home.”

“Doral was great for that because I got better each and every day with my feel, and this week I came right out of the gate and I had it just because I had basically got it down at Doral. It feels good to be back, to feel the heat on the back nine on Sunday like that. To have to make a putt at 14 and to make that putt, those are good times.”

“It’s like Stevie was saying out there, this feels like we hadn’t left. You can understand sometimes when some of the older players haven’t been in contention in a while and they come back and then all of a sudden they put themselves in contention and then they win. You just remember how to do it. It hasn’t been that long for me, but you just have that feel of what to do and it’s a matter of getting it done.”

Zach Johnson finished alone in third at 2 under while Nick Watney, Scott Verplank, John Senden and Pat Perez all shared 4th position. Senden earned US$236,000 for his week’s work.

The next best of the Australians was Robert Allenby who finished 11th, James Nitties was 22nd, Matthew Goggin was 30th, Stuart Appleby and Peter Lonard 52nd and Aaron Baddeley 66th.

For Goggin he has an agonising wait to see if his current 49th position in the world ranking will stand up when the new rankings are finalised tonight. If he remains inside the top 50 he will be assured of his first start at Augusta National. It seems at this stage as if that will be the case.

The PGA Tour now moves to Houston for this week’s lead up to the Masters, the Shell Houston Open.

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