Tiger draws a crowd, but falls just short
Classic Woods sends Masters message, Conners loses grip
PALM HARBOR, FLA.— It was a swooning ball, an operatic ham of a putt playing to the back row of the theatre, curling fractionally and dipping almost regretfully into the cup.
And for a moment, there was magic in the air.
On the 17th hole, after a dozen straight pars, following a string of putts shading just a twitch to the right and to the left, Tiger Woods was on the threshold of a remarkable renaissance.
One more birdie and at worst he would force a playoff with Paul Casey.
His devotees, stacked 10-deep in the gallery, let out a roar, as they had been full-throated in their welcome-back chorus on the Copperhead course since Thursday. Because they’d been left largely dormant for the previous three hours, since an opening-hole birdie. Fifteen holes with nary a birdie in between. But a ruinous fourth-hole bogey.
Woods lifted his head after draining that 43-foot birdie putt on 17, willing it in, and grinned, tugged appreciatively at the bill of his cap.
In his Sunday red, moving off purposefully towards the close-out, his destiny in his own hands. Looking strong and fit and comfortable, closer to old form than ever since returning from fusion surgery on his lower back last April. One shot behind with one par-4 hole to play. And surely the golf gods would look down with favour upon this demi-god, rising from his own personal and professional ashes, nearly five years since last he won on the PGA Tour.
Let’s stop here for a moment, just to further admire that putt on No. 17.
Woods found the green but the ball landed well past the hole, leaving him with a long rightto-left downhill putt. In his words: “The green goes from dead across, as it comes across in the first part of my putt, then it switches to down. And when it switches to down, I just keep telling myself to putt to the picture.’’
Uh, pardon? (Finger waggle in the ear; what did he just say?)
“Just keep putting to the picture and I did. And the ball went in.”
Alas, it was to be his last hurrah at the Valspar Championship at the cemetery-pristine Innisbrook Resort.
Woods played conservatively off the 18th tee, laying way back, finding the green but with a lengthy uphill putt for a birdie to force a playoff, his approach shot about 40 feet short. That birdie putt to manhandle Casey into a playoff was an anti-climactic two feet short.
He started the day one stroke behind the surprise leader, Canadian rookie Corey Conners — more on him shortly. He ended the day shooting 70, one stroke behind Casey, the Briton who had himself not won on tour since 2009 — 132 starts — and was sweating it out for some 90 minutes, watching from the clubhouse with a final round 6-under 65 vaulting him into the lead.
But a revivified Woods hadn’t come this close since The Barclays in 2013, last time he finished second, last time he broke par in all four rounds on the PGA Tour. Hadn’t won since the 2013 WGC Bridgestone Invitational.
Out of the social media ether, former flame Lindsey Vonn tweeted him good luck.
All the stars had aligned, looked like. Sunday felt like Woods time again, as it had been through all those years when he was grand, Herculean, on the verge now —with more than 20,000 of the fortunate on hand to witness it — of his 80th tour win, after four back surgeries, at one point unable to walk, to get out of bed. He is only 42. But no. Missing a pair of birdie chances on both par-5s on the back nine, pulling a wedge into the rough at No. 11 and three-putting from 80 feet on No. 14, that just about killed it. Until 17.
“I was very thankful to make that putt at 17,” he said afterwards. “I had a couple of good looks and I just didn’t make them today. They were a little bit outside of the range. I wasn’t as sharp as I wanted to be. It was one of those days where I kept giving it half a putt — I was half a putt this way or half a putt that way and I couldn’t get quite a full swing at it.”
He was asked, repeatedly, about the emotion of the day, of this tour stop that he opted in for only a week ago. Yet he steered around the sentimental. Talked about the golf.
“I was just grinding. I was just trying to put myself in there. I felt like 11, maybe 12 (under par) might do it. There were so many guys tacked up there. I thought somebody might come out of the pack . . . No one really did anything except for Paul.”
There was regret, of course, but there was also considerable self-satisfaction, with the Masters on the horizon and his game looking just about vintage. What shot would keep him up Sunday night maybe, tossing and turning over it?
“Not one. There’s a few here and there. You miss a putt or you miss one shot on Thursday, it’s the same thing as on Sunday.”
But the long game, the long view, that was so heartening as Woods builds on the performance gains he’s made in recent weeks. “I think my game’s progressing. These are nice building blocks. I’ve made a few tweaks in the swing and it’s paid off. And I hit the ball well. You know, the thing I was most happy about this week is that when I did miss something, it was on the correct side. My ups and downs were relatively easy this week, all things considered. If I missed the fairway, I was on the correct side. If I missed the green, I was on the correct side.’’
Segue here to 26-year-old Conners from Listowel, Ont., who led Thursday through Saturday, who’d finished six strokes out of qualifying on Monday but squeaked as third alternate. Who was playing downwind of Woods, last out of the clubhouse on Sunday. Who seemed, with his steadiness, like he just might make it two in a row for Canada, after Adam Hadwin won this thing (and $1,134,000 U.S.) a year ago. Had otherwise intended to visit his grandparents, who live a couple of hours away. Instead, they came over to watch him, with the parental units and the fiancée.
The scrubeenie fell back out of the chute, opening with a bogey on the course’s easiest hole, bogeyed the third, doublebogeyed the 13th and bogeyed the 18th, shooting 77 and tied for 16th when all was said and done.
“It was a great experience. It was nice to get myself into the mix. I played some really good golf. I tried to battle hard out here today, but it just wasn’t meant to be.’’
Nervous, he acknowledged, after three days of cool.
“I tried to feel relaxed but it was tough — the game wasn’t going the way I wanted it to, so it was a little harder to settle in. It was a little bit of a different experience, something I’ve never felt before and I’ll definitely use it in the future.’’
Well, at least he doesn’t have to wake up Monday morning as the most hated man in America — if the leaderboard had held true to Saturday, if he’d beaten Woods by one stroke.