Woods Holds On At Cog Hill

Sports Betting News - September 14th, 2009 - Written by John

This is the Tiger we were expecting.

After being shutout for four weeks following his win at Bridgestone, the no. 1 player in the world finally broke through. Tiger Woods shot a three-under 68 on the final day of the BMW Classic to seal his 71st PGA Tour win Sunday. His eight-shot win was the tenth time in his career he's done so, much of it coming when he shot a course-record 62 in Saturday's third round.

"It's one of my best years," Woods said

He will now head into the final round of the FedEx Cup as the no. 1 seed in hopes of securing the $10 million bounty.

Jim Furyk and tour rookie Marc Leishman finished tied for second at 11-under, winning what other's jokingly considered to be the "other tournament".

"It felt like we had a tournament within a tournament," Furyk joked on ESPN.com. "Tiger was seven ahead. He was kind of running away. It was kind of a tournament for second place."

Furyk's eighth top-10 finish of the year vaulted him into the third spot on the overall leaderboard. Leishman, who had to eagle no. 18 last week to advance to the BMW Championship, moved to the Tour Championship, as well.

Woods was finally able to put together a complete tournament. In recent weeks, most notably in the PGA Championship, he was right in the thick of things only to fall to lesser players. Y.E. Yang was the first opponent ever to surmount a deficit to Woods heading into the final day of a major, and, weeks later, Woods missed a seven-footer on no. 18 at the Barclays, which would have forced a playoff with Heath Slocum.

But there was no way anyone was going to even sniff this trophy. Woods was too good. On no. 9 Woods smiled and shrugged his shoulders with MJ folly after one of the most improbable birdies of the year. Earlier in the hole, Woods was stuck behind a tree and had a window of about 20' by 30' to hit the ball through. Most players would've layed up. He went three-iron and pounded it through. Then he needed to hook his nine iron for a chance to put it on the green. Check that one off, too.

"To play as well as I have of late and not get the Ws has been a little bit frustrating, no doubt, because I've been so close," Woods told ESPN.com. "It's just been a matter of making a couple of putts here and there, and I would have won the tournaments. And lo and behold, boom! I hit the ball just as well, just as consistent this week, and I made a few putts. And that's how it happens."

The heartbreaker came when Brandt Snedeker, playing with Woods for the first time, started as a shoe-in for the final tournament, but choked on the last hole. Only needing a bogey on 18, Snedeker pushed his putt to the outside rim of the cup and couldn't sink two tap-ins to take a triple. By then it didn't matter.

"I can't believe this," he would later tell reporters.

Due to the up-and-down format of the Playoffs, four players have a realistic shot at capturing the title with a win in Atlanta. Steve Stricker, who's three wins this season are second behind Woods, is the most likely, although familiar names like Zach Johnson, Slocum and Furyk are not improbable.

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