TIGER IS ROARING BACK TO HIS BEST
Bedlam at Bellerive as red-hot Woods fires on final day again
THEY waited all this time to watch Tiger Woods in St Louis, the Gateway City, and after what he delivered at the 100th USPGA Championship over the weekend, they might spend just as long talking about it.
As if 66-66 wasn’t good enough to be going on with on Saturday, the 42-year- old came up with a performance yesterday that defied belief, logic, you name it. How can you hit no fairways out of seven on the front nine and still walk to the 10th tee having played just 32 shots? We could dwell on the basic flaws regarding the layout that would make this at all possible but you can be sure the 75,000 people who witnessed it would rather dwell on the smoke and mirrors from Woods that sent excitement levels completely off the charts.
There were also some mesmerising iron shots that resulted in tapin birdies at the second and third that got his round off to the ideal start. Thereafter it was all about the indefatigable will of perhaps the greatest player the game has ever seen and a peerless putting stroke that has defied the agonies and long passage of time. eight one-putts in a row he had after missing from 6ft at the first to send Bellerive into bedlam.
At the 11th, a birdie putt from 20ft stopped on the edge. How did the roars of the crowd not cause it to topple in? no matter. Woods birdied the 12th and 13th. As every putt dropped and they registered it on the leaderboard at the 18th to send that area crazy as well. At times, the entire 200 acres appeared to be jumping.
The wonder of Woods was the soundtrack to a febrile day at the season’s final major as the rest of the leading characters tried their best to block out the wall of noise.
At the top of the pile was bludgeoner-in- chief Brooks Koepka, such an impressive winner of the US open in June. The only players to do the US open-USPGA double in the same season just happened to have the surnames of Sarazen, Hogan, nicklaus and Woods, so that was the company he was trying to keep.
It looked like it might be getting on top of the 28-year-old when he bogeyed the 4th and 5th but he responded superbly with three successive birdies to close out the front nine. Defending champion Justin Thomas was showing how badly he wanted to keep hold of his trophy, while Adam Scott was doing his best to script his poignant tribute to his close friend and fellow pro Jarrod Lyle, who died last week at the age of just 36.
Way ahead of them, Belgian Thomas Pieters was remembering the man within who put in the greatest ryder Cup rookie performance of all time at Hazeltine in 2016. The 26-year-old shook off a moribund season to move to six under for his round and in sight of posting a challenging total until he took seven down the 17th.
A bogey from Thomas at the 16th meant he also dropped from contention. Scott, who birdied six out of eight holes in a spectacular burst of scoring from the 8th had caught Koepka with five to go. As for Woods, he fell two behind following a harsh bogey at the 14th, where his par putt horseshoed out. How typical on this day he responded with another tap-in birdie at the 15th. Back to one behind. Back to bedlam.
englishman Tyrrell Hatton signed off an encouraging year in the majors with a fine 64 for a top-10 finish. After missing the halfway cut in the four Grand Slams last year, the 26-year-old has made the cut in all four this year and followed his tied-sixth finish at the US open with this strong showing.
‘It was cool being out there playing in front of these crowds, and experiencing the buzz that Tiger brings,’ he said. ‘We heard the roars around the course and then we heard the Tiger roars, which were something else entirely.’
Tommy Fleetwood signed off with a 68 for tied 36th place. The putts didn’t drop all week to allow him to contend but he headed off for a short vacation in the Bahamas in a contented mood. ‘The bottom line is that I had the best result of my career in all four majors, so I’ve got to be happy with that,’ said the 27-year-old.
Justin rose began the week unsure if he would be able to start the event due to a back problem, so a 68 for a top-20 finish was a positive outcome. But Ian Poulter will be kicking himself he didn’t move ahead of Paul Casey into an automatic qualifying spot for europe’s ryder Cup team after a 70.