Tiger Woods landed his seventh WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title as Padraig Harrington's title bid met a watery end.
Woods, who won by four shots, had decimated the three-shot third-round lead held by Harrington in the first four holes of the final round before the US PGA champion from Ireland, chasing his first victory of the year after a season of struggle as he modified his swing, regained the advantage with four holes to play.
Disaster befell Harrington, though, as he zig-zagged the 16th fairway and then sent his fourth shot at the par five from greenside rough into the pond guarding the front of the green.
A triple-bogey eight was the end result as Woods carded a birdie four on the way to a second consecutive 65 that sealed his 90th victory worldwide, his 70th PGA Tour win, his fifth title of the year, and the second in as many weeks after landing last Sunday's Buick Open.
"It was a great battle," Woods said. "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."
Harrington had started his final round at 10 under par in intensely humid 90-degree Fahrenheit heat in Ohio, but Woods piled the pressure on at the par-five second by sinking a 24-foot eagle putt to move to nine under on the par-70, 7,400-yard South Course .
Woods sank a 13-foot birdie putt at the fourth and, having parred his first four holes, Harrington found his three-shot lead had evaporated.
Woods' putter was as hot as the weather and, when he sent down his second birdie putt in a row at the fifth, this one from 27 feet, the world number one moved to the top of the leaderboard at 11 under, Harrington recording another par to stay at 10 under.
Harrington was not without his chances and at the eighth his 14-foot birdie putt came up short by inches, but Woods struck another blow with a birdie putt at the ninth and at the turn moved into a two-shot lead at 12 under.
Harrington clawed a shot back at the par-four 11th to move to 11 under and the Irishman was back on level terms when Woods bogeyed the par-four 13th to fall back into a share of the lead with five holes to play.
There was more bad news for Woods at the par-four 14th when Harrington sank his par putt from 14 feet, celebrating with a fist pump while the American chipped to five feet and took his bogey to fall to 10 under as the Irishman edged back in front at 11 under with four to play.
Both men parred the 15th but the tables turned decisively in Woods' favour at the par-five 16th, with the final group being put on the clock having fallen too far behind the penultimate group in the eyes of tournament officials.
The rivals each missed the fairway off the tee, Harrington to the right and Woods to the left. The world number one laid up in the fairway but the Irishman found a mound of rough at the front edge of a left-side fairway bunker and sent his next shot into greenside rough.
By that time Woods had produced some magic from 182 yards, his eight-iron approach stopping a foot from the hole.
There was more woe for Harrington as his wedge out of the rough hopped onto the green and bounced into the greenside pond and the Dubliner's title bid disappeared with the triple bogey that followed.
Harrington posted a 72 to fall into a tie for second at eight under with Australia's Robert Allenby, who shot a 66. It was the Irishman's best finish of 2009, his first top-10 since a fifth in Abu Dhabi in January.
"It was a great match, a great battle and I was thoroughly enjoying it all the way through," Harrington said.
"I really was enjoying it, really got into it very well and all the way through the front nine and right into the back nine I was right in there, in the zone and it was a good match at that stage.
"I was happy enough starting with five pars on that course and after that I started getting aggressive. From six through to 16 I hit a lot of the shots, was going after pins, hitting the ball well and in the zone."
Of the fateful 16th, Harrington said: "I wasn't unhappy to have missed the fairway right but I rushed my second shot chipping it out, didn't hit a good shot and 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."
No comments:
Post a Comment