Tiger Woods gained his 77th career victory after winning his eighth Arnold Palmer Invitational on Monday.
Woods had to wait an extra day to win his sixth tourney in his last 20 starts due to a severe line of storms that rolled through the area on Sunday. He had just birdied the third hole when the wind and rain chased everyone off the course.
Play resumed by mid-morning Monday and Woods was still covered in focus. He birdied holes four and six, bogeyed the eighth, but still kept a pretty solid grip on the top spot.
Rickie Fowler, Woods’ playing partner for the day, tried his best to put pressure on Tiger during the final round. Fowler rattled off three birdies in six holes to pull within two shots of the omnipresent Woods. He didn’t play his best golf on the front nine, but he stayed steady enough to keep pace.
That’s when the tragedy on hole number 16 happened.
Fowler and Woods were separated by just two shots when Fowler stepped to analyze his approach shot on the par-five 16th. He stood in the middle of the fairway knowing that a birdie would leave him just one shot back of Woods.
As Fowler wound his seven iron back to strike the ball, he chunked the shot and knew that he was in trouble. The ball cut through the brisk Orlando air, landing firmly on the Bermuda greens, and promptly rolled backwards into the pond surrounding the hole.
Any tension that was there quickly exited the atmosphere and most knew that Fowler had just ruined his chances of hawking Woods down for a victory. The uneasiness didn’t stop there for Fowler. When he took his drop, the ball landed right in the divot his club created on his last shot.
Given that bad lie, Fowler was in danger of repeating the failure of his previous swing. He did just that, rinsing his ball and removing himself from a second place prize check.
When asked if he was pressing on 16 to catch Tiger, Fowler was dismissive.
“I was playing to win. Seven iron, I had the perfect club, I hit a solid shot there, I’m having a good luck at three. If I make three, he makes four and we cut it down to one, and a one shot lead for him going into the last few holes where a lot of things can happen.”
After that, the tournament was good money for Woods. Fowler triple-bogeyed the 16th, Woods birdied and he was a full two shots ahead of Justin Rose, the next golfer to occupy the second slot on the leaderboard after Fowler’s collapse.
Rose had an up and down day on the softened Bay Hill fairways and greens. He bogeyed two out of the first three holes, but placed himself into contending position by dropping four birdies for the day after his rough start.
Once his round was done, Rose admitted that he knew his chances of winning on Monday were all but done.
“I went home after yesterday kind of feeling I had blown myself out of the tournament really. I hit it in the water yesterday on three… I knew that kind of put me out of it, but I was just proud today the way I came back, bounced back, battled back,” said Rose.
This day belonged to Tiger. Even with two golfers having the potential to derail his chances of a 77th victory, there seemed to be no real notion that he would lose. He was dialed in to the task at hand, and even though he showed some inconsistencies on the back nine, he looked close to regaining his form of old.
If not for injuries, Woods may have reached this point sooner. He withdrew from the 2010 Player Championship because of a ruptured disc, injured his left knee at Augusta in April of 2011 and left the Player Championship again due to Achilles and knee problems in May of that same year.
The injuries and bad play left many believing that Tiger’s best days were behind him, but he never wavered in his confidence.
“If I get healthy, I know I can play this game at a high level. I know I can be where I’m contending in every event, contending for major championships and being consistent day in and day out, if I got healthy. Once I got there, then my game turned.” said Woods.
With the win at Bay Hill on Monday, Woods reclaimed the spot as the world’s top golfer for the first time since 2010.
As he sat and reflected on his day, he said that he was looking forward to taking the next two weeks off before heading to Augusta to prepare for the Masters.
Other golfers beware.
-JH
