Woods continues victory binge
Tiger Woods celebrated his 10-year anniversary of turning pro Sunday by winning for the 52nd time on the PGA Tour, making an 8-foot birdie putt on the fourth playoff hole against Stewart Cink to win the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio.
Woods won for the fourth straight time, a streak that began at the British Open and shows no sign of ending.
This one looked to be in doubt, however, when Cink made up a three-shot deficit over the final three holes, then had Woods on the ropes the first three holes of the playoff. But with rain pounding Firestone South, Cink hit into a bunker on the 17th hole, and never got a chance to putt for par when Woods made his birdie.
“Just end this thing now,” Woods said he told himself standing over the final putt.
Both finished at 10-under 270.
Woods won for the fifth time in the seven years this World Golf Championship has been played at Firestone, and he now has won more on this track than any other golf course on the PGA Tour. Woods has won four times each at Augusta National and Torrey Pines.
It was on Aug. 27, 1996, that Woods announced in Milwaukee he was turning pro. Ten years later, his 52 victories match Byron Nelson for fifth place all time, and his 12 majors are second only to the 18 won by Jack Nicklaus over a quarter-century.
Woods, however, said the only competition he cared about was himself.
“It’s always yourself,” he said. “You’re always trying to better what you’ve done in the past — always. Hopefully, that’s good enough to beat the rest of the guys.”
Cink had a shot to win on the first three playoff holes – a 20-foot chip that grazed the lip at No. 18, an 18-foot putt that missed on the high side at No. 17, and an 8-foot par putt on the 18th again that missed to the right.
“I didn’t convert, and he did,” Cink said. “That’s why he has the trophy.”
Victory seemed inevitable for Woods, as it often does at Firestone, when he turned a two-shot deficit at the turn into a three-shot lead with his 20-foot birdie on the 13th. No one else was making birdies, and Woods wasn’t making mistakes.
That changed on the 652-yard 16th hole, when Woods hit into the trees down the right side and had to pitch out to the fairway, leaving himself some 230 yards to the flag. He went over the green, chipped to 4 feet and missed the par putt.
“It was a roller coast out there,” Woods said. “I was down. All of a sudden, I got hot … and I had the lead. I was thinking if I could par in, I’d win the tournament. That didn’t happen.”
It took longer than he wanted, but Woods got the result everyone expects at this tournament.
On Wednesday, Woods will go for a fifth straight victory when he plays the Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston. He has already won six of his 13 starts on the PGA Tour this year.
Reno–Tahoe Open
Will MacKenzie made a 10-foot birdie putt on the final hole to close out a 1-under 71 and pick up his first PGA Tour victory by one stroke over veteran Bob Estes at the Reno-Tahoe Open in Reno, Nev.
MacKenzie led by three strokes with five holes to go and was ahead by one before he made a bogey at the par-5 17th. Estes could have taken the lead there, but missed a 20-foot birdie attempt and missed another on the 18th from about 16 feet. He shot an even-par 72 in the final round.
MacKenzie finished at 20-under 268.
Champions Tour
Eduardo Romero knocked in a 2-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole against Lonnie Nielsen to win The Tradition in Aloha, Ore.
Romero almost eagled the first playoff hole, leaving his 19-foot putt just short on No. 18. Nielsen bogeyed the hole.
Romero, an Argentine, crept up the leaderboard with an eagle and three birdies on the front nine.
He finished with a 65, the low round of the tournament, for a 13-under 275 total.
LPGA
Lorena Ochoa won a head-to-head duel with Jee Young Lee, pulling away with two consecutive birdies to shoot a 7-under 65 and win the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio by three shots.
Ochoa and Lee, playing in the same group, were tied at 22 under through 12 holes. But Ochoa birdied the next two holes for a two-stroke lead and was never threatened again as she parred out to finish at 24-under 264.
U.S. Amateur
Richie Ramsay used strong putting and pinpoint control of his mid-range game to take a 2-up lead on John Kelly after 18 holes of the 36-hole U.S. Amateur finale in Chaska, Minn.
Ramsay assumed command on the back nine, taking advantage of two bogeys by Kelly to position himself to become the first Scotsman to win the Amateur since Findlay Douglas in 1898.