Tiger Woods needed just three tournaments to prove he’s still the hottest property in world sport – and worth every cent of the $3m it usually takes to persuade him to play events which don’t figure on the US PGA Tour schedule.The hard-pressed governors of Victoria must have chuckled into their cornflakes as Woods sealed an astonishing fightback with a 16-foot putt for birdie and victory on the final hole at Bay Hill.
Their decision to underwrite Tiger’s invite to next November’s Australian Masters raised howls of anger and derision Down Under – but it doesn’t look so dim now.
Meanwhile, Tiger’s rivals face a sobering question in the run-up to next week’s US Masters. What if Woods brings his ‘A’ game to Augusta National?
Get the calculators out. Should Tiger marry the ball-striking and shot-making we saw from him at Doral to his unworldly chipping and putting at Bay Hill, his record 12-stroke winning margin at the 1997 US Masters could come under threat.
No question, Woods, on his ‘Second Coming’ is stronger mentally and physically at age 33 than the toothy youngster who took the sporting world by storm 12 years back.
It’s a big ask. No normal human could be expected to win a Major on only his fourth outing after eight months on the injury list.
It’s a big ask. No normal human could be expected to win a Major on only his fourth outing after eight months on the injury list.
And at Augusta National next week, Woods won’t get away with the errant shots which frustrated him at Arnie Palmer’s place. Yet with venues like Bethpage, Pebble Beach and St Andrews on the roster over the next 16 months, don’t bet
against Tiger achieving his lifetime ambition and equalling Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 professional Majors.
Of course, the weekend’s sixth win at Bay Hill is an enormous boost to Tiger’s morale as he heads home to prepare for his first Major since June’s staggering US Open success.
Standing on Bay Hill’s first tee on Sunday, Woods, the defending champion, was five strokes behind Sean O’Hair, yet he posted a final-round 67 to clinch his 66th win on the PGA Tour and 90th worldwide.
Though his 26-year-old opponent held out stubbornly to the last, the self-assurance which had underpinned O’Hair’s performance over his first three days at Bay Hill had evaporated.
In truth, Tiger wasn’t playing well enough to obliterate his opponent with one of those famous final-day charges – but he’d still close to within one stroke by the par-three seventh, where the jittery O’Hair three-putted for a telling second bogey in four holes.
Of course, it cannot have helped when several spectators, as keen as the rabble at the Roman Colosseum for the Tiger to spill blood, cackled audibly at O’Hair’s misfortune there.
Sunday would be the fourth time O’Hair failed to seal the deal after leading into the final round on the PGA Tour, including last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational when he also played in the final group with a rampant Tiger.
Yet Woods had to scramble hard on occasions, most notably on 14 when he sank a phenomenal 14-footer for par after his approach shot had plugged under the lip of a greenside bunker. His magical putter then helped Tiger draw level for the first time at 15, where he holed from 25 feet for an unlikely birdie and the bell tolled ever louder for his opponent at the next when O’Hair’s approach fell short into the water. O’Hair’s bogey put Woods ahead but Tiger dropped a shot out of yet another plugged lie tight to the lip of a greenside bunker at 17.
So they were all-square, until Woods rolled home that clutch putt for birdie and victory on the final green. For the second year on the trot, Bay Hill witness an explosion of elation from Tiger, only this one had been eight months in the making.
against Tiger achieving his lifetime ambition and equalling Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 professional Majors.
Of course, the weekend’s sixth win at Bay Hill is an enormous boost to Tiger’s morale as he heads home to prepare for his first Major since June’s staggering US Open success.
Standing on Bay Hill’s first tee on Sunday, Woods, the defending champion, was five strokes behind Sean O’Hair, yet he posted a final-round 67 to clinch his 66th win on the PGA Tour and 90th worldwide.
Though his 26-year-old opponent held out stubbornly to the last, the self-assurance which had underpinned O’Hair’s performance over his first three days at Bay Hill had evaporated.
In truth, Tiger wasn’t playing well enough to obliterate his opponent with one of those famous final-day charges – but he’d still close to within one stroke by the par-three seventh, where the jittery O’Hair three-putted for a telling second bogey in four holes.
Of course, it cannot have helped when several spectators, as keen as the rabble at the Roman Colosseum for the Tiger to spill blood, cackled audibly at O’Hair’s misfortune there.
Sunday would be the fourth time O’Hair failed to seal the deal after leading into the final round on the PGA Tour, including last year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational when he also played in the final group with a rampant Tiger.
Yet Woods had to scramble hard on occasions, most notably on 14 when he sank a phenomenal 14-footer for par after his approach shot had plugged under the lip of a greenside bunker. His magical putter then helped Tiger draw level for the first time at 15, where he holed from 25 feet for an unlikely birdie and the bell tolled ever louder for his opponent at the next when O’Hair’s approach fell short into the water. O’Hair’s bogey put Woods ahead but Tiger dropped a shot out of yet another plugged lie tight to the lip of a greenside bunker at 17.
So they were all-square, until Woods rolled home that clutch putt for birdie and victory on the final green. For the second year on the trot, Bay Hill witness an explosion of elation from Tiger, only this one had been eight months in the making.
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