Woods rocks Tour with first win in five years
ATLANTA — When that long-awaited, oft-debated and sorely-doubted next win did come for Tiger Woods, it was so deceivingly simple. It required nothing more from him than to be steady while all others at East Lake were losing their minds.
Just stand strong in a swirl of the very chaos his presence atop the leaderboard created — you know, be Tiger Woods — for 18 more holes and maybe the best golf comeback story since Ben Hogan vs. the Greyhound bus would have its proper next chapter.
From a modest round of 1over 71 Sunday came a most extraordinary turn of events at the Tour Championship. Woods won for the first time in five years. And drowned out in the roar of a gallery turned to a mob were the murmurs that he’d never add to his cache of 79 PGA Tour victories following his 2017 spinal fusion.
“Eighty (as in wins) is a big number,” he said. “I’ve been sitting on 79 for about five years now and to get 80 is a pretty damned good feeling.”
In the backwash of history, Justin Rose birdied 18 to shimmy up the leaderboard just enough — finishing tied for fourth at 6 under — to claim the season-ending FedEx Cup and the $10 million bonus.
A nice little perk for him. A priceless experience for the thousands who followed Woods around East Lake jostling for a decent view of the Woods Revival. And while they all strained to get closer to Woods, those inside the ropes who were supposed to make things hard on him couldn’t get out of his way quickly enough.
It could be argued that Woods won this thing Saturday, with his run of six birdies over the first seven holes. For his last 29 holes, he was 2-over par, but nobody could make anything of the opportunity. And for the 54th time in 58 tournaments in which Woods had at least a share of the third-round lead, he closed the deal. The most remarkable number of this day.
The two who began Sunday three strokes back of Woods just evaporated in the heat of the moment. Rose shot 73, while Woods’ playing partner Rory McIlroy shot 74. It was up to Billy Horschel, coming up
from nowhere, shooting 66 and pushing to within two shots of Woods (11 under for the week) at the end, to give Sunday the least bit of competitive edge. It otherwise was a coronation.
Woods arrived for his 2:05 tee time like a star for his big film debut. All that was missing was the red carpet. His every step to the tee box was through a cordon thick with people, and as he approached, their voices were a rising wave of noise that Woods practically could have ridden to No. 1 had he packed a boogie board in his golf bag.
Cooks in their tall while hats and caterers in their aprons came down from their stations to capture the day’s first shot on their phone.