Woods demolishes world class BMW field

BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2009 BMW Championship | Round Four | 14 Sep 2009

There were two tournaments at the Dubsdread course at Cog Hill today – one for Tiger Woods and one for the rest of the field. Woods’ eight shot victory at the BMW Championship annihilated a world class field and continued an amazing run Woods has had in the event previously known as the Western Open.

For Woods it was his fifth win at Cog Hill in 11 starts as a professional and coupled with his two runner-up finishes he has dominated tournament golf at the venue since 1997.

Woods’s third round of 62 split the field apart and starting the last day seven shots ahead, there was little hope for those left in his wake on Saturday evening. That would prove the case as he played almost mistake free golf on day four. An early bogey when he hit a poor drive at the 5th gave his chasers brief cause for hope but that was soon extinguished with birdies at the 7th and 9th and, although it was all over by then, he added salt the wounds of the field by adding an eagle at the par five when his approach from 230 yards finished 7 feet from the hole.

“Absolutely, it’s one of my best years,” said Tiger when asked to compare 2009 against previous years. “There’s no doubt about that. You know, I haven’t won as many times as I did in 2000, didn’t win any majors this year, but certainly I was – I’ve never had a year where I’ve been this consistent, either, this many high finishes and the number of events I’ve played.”

“To have, as I said, an opportunity just about every time I tee it up to win the championship on the back nine, you know, that’s something that, as I said, I can’t tell you how proud I am for – the job that my trainers and Hank did to help me get to this point.”

While his year has been especially gratifying for Woods, so too has it been for Australian rookie Marc Leishman. When Leishman left the course last night he was expecting to be playing with Matt Kuchar in the second to last group in the final round but because of issues to do with early fog final round pairing alterations were made. He would play with Woods and Snedeker.

Leishman not only handled himself well in such a daunting situation but he contended for second position throughout, eventually sharing it with Jim Furyk, who was forced to shoot 66 to catch the 25 year old Victorian.

“At the start of the day, actually I got a text message at about 7:30 in the morning saying that we had the groups change and I was now with Tiger, so it actually worked out pretty well and didn’t have to sleep on that,” said Leishman after his round. 

“Then walking down the first I sort of said to Matty, my caddie, ’This is what we play golf for, in the last group on Sunday playing with Tiger; this is just unbelievable.’ It was great. I said to Matty – it was a perfect 3-wood shot, and I said to Matty, ’I think I want to hit driver because it has a bigger club face.’ I was pretty nervous. Just glad to get that tee shot away and get a few pars to start with. But holed some good par putts early to keep the momentum going.”

“I didn’t make birdie until 9, I think, so that was good to finally get a birdie on the board. Then I played fairly solid for the rest of the day. I didn’t hole too many birdie putts but was holing the par putts. It was an awesome day for me, and to know I’m in the TOUR Championship now and The Masters, you know, it’s pretty hard to wipe the smile off my face.”

Leishman earned US$660,000 for his great week and moves beyond US$1.6 million in his rookie season. Leishman will now get starts in all four majors next year which will include his first time to Augusta National.

Leishman has always been considered a fine talent with wins in Australia, Korea and on the Nationwide Tour prior to this year, his win in Texas last October equalling a Nationwide Tour record when winning by 11 shots in Midland.

Sean O’Hair finished alone in 4th position.

John Senden was the next best of the Australians after Leishman, his 20th place finish just sneaking him inside the top 30 to advance to the Tour Championship in two weeks time. A double bogey at the 17th and a final round 77 nearly proved very costly but importantly he has made it.

Robert Allenby improved on recent form with a final round of 69 to finish 23rd, Nathan Green was 53rd, Geoff Ogilvy 55th and Jason Day 59th.

Ogilvy, Leishman and Senden are all Tour Championship bound.

The PGA Tour has a break next week with the Tour Championship being played in Atlanta starting on September 24th.