Woods outguns Harrington at Firestone
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 Bridgestone Invitational | Round Four | 10 Aug 2009
Tiger Woods has produced yet another marvellous display of high quality golf to win the World Golf Championship’s Bridgestone Invitational at the Firestone Country Club in Akron but it was not before a roller coaster final round battle with a resurgent Padraig Harrington.
It was a great battle, said Woods. "I think the wind was exactly what Paddy was probably looking for to protect the lead like that on this golf course, and I just knew that I had to get off to a quick start somehow, and I was able to do that. Fortunately I was able to keep it going and post a good front nine number. But Paddy was just hanging in there, never made a mistake, made a nice birdie at 11, then I made two mistakes right there at 13, 14. Paddy made a great par there at 14 to take the lead, and then — until 16 it was just a great battle.
“I don’t know if you guys know it or not, but we got put on the clock. I don’t think that Paddy would have hit the pitch shot that way if he was able to take his time, look at it, analyse it, but he was on the clock, had to get up there quickly and hit it.”
Tiger Woods domination of tournament golf at the iconic venue appeared at risk when after establishing an early lead on day four he allowed third round leader Harrington back into the mix. Woods was so quickly out of the blocks in his final round that he had overcome the three shot third round deficit by the fourth hole and by the time the pair walked to the 6th tee Woods was on ahead.
An eagle from 30 feet at the 2nd, and birdies from 15 and 30 feet at the 4th and 5th gave Woods the momentum and when he added another birdie from 7 feet at the 9th he was out in 30 and ahead by two.
A Harrington birdie at the 10th would reduce the margin to one before Woods missed the green right at the 13th and took bogey and then scrambled to save bogey at the 14th. At that point Harrington had moved one ahead but at the 16th things would change dramatically. Woods hit first at the par five and missed the fairway left. Harrington missed the fairway right and so for both it became a compulsory lay-up.
Woods was first to play his third and from 180 yards to a front flag and with the wind following, an 8 iron pitched past the flag and spun back to 1 foot. It was a stunning shot under any circumstances but under these it was even better.
Harrington had laid up his second in an awkward lie. The margin for error with is approach was slim and taking the water out of play he was long but that left an awkward pitch down to the flag with the water behind. Trying to perhaps do a little too much, Harrington caught the shot thin and it found the water. From there he could only manage a triple bogey 8 and the four shot swing had Woods ahead by three.
“You know, the tee shot, if you’re going to go for the green in two you’ve got to hit it right down the right-hand side, said Harrington. “I wasn’t unhappy to have missed the fairway right. It’s not the end of the world. I rushed my second shot chipping it out and didn’t hit a good shot and obviously left myself in trouble. I hit a pretty decent third shot. Again, I had an awkward fourth shot. I had to go after it and probably rushed that a bit, as well. That was the end of that.”
“I certainly wasn’t going to back off and not try to get it up-and-down, added Harrington referring to his chip from behind the green. “I could have chipped it sideways and made sure of making 6. But no, it was my chance to win that tournament, I knew I was going to make par there and go after it. But that’s my nature in those situations. I just hit the shot poorly, which is unfortunate.”
Woods’ advantage extended further when he hit his approach to five feet at the last and converted to win by four over Robert Allenby and Padraig Harrington who did well to save par at the last after missing the green left.
Allenby’s final round of 66 including the birdie at the last from 5 feet was worth a lot of money to him. The birdie at the last was effectively worth more than US$300,000 and provides reason to believe that a finish better than his previous best in a major of 7th can be achieved next week at Hazeltine. His putting seemed to be the key to his improved effort.
“Yeah, Vijay Singh was the one that told me to try it, and that was at AT&T at Congressional this year on the Thursday night, said Allenby referring to his new putting grip. “I tried it on the Friday there, and it felt pretty good even though I missed the cut. Then I went to Loch Lomond and I didn’t trust it for the first round so I putted normal, and had I been putting good there I would have shot 5-under the first round. So I tried it the second round, and it felt good.”
“Then I thought, well, the British Open might as well just go all the way. I putted great at the British Open all four rounds with it. Now I’ve had a couple weeks off and I’ve been working pretty hard the last week. I thought, well, we’ll see what happens this week. It’s definitely rejuvenated my game, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t say I was on the down and out, but it just didn’t feel good and hasn’t felt good for quite a while. It’s funny, when you feel good with the putter, the rest of your game starts clicking.”
Hunter Mahan and Angel Cabrera finished in a tied for 4th both enhancing their chances for next week.
The next best of the Australasians after Allenby were Mathew Goggin and Geoff Ogilvy who finished 22nd, Nick O’Hern was 45th, Danny Lee, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby were 51st and Nathan Green 64th.
Next week the USPGA Championship is played in Chaska, Minnesota.
