Fitting end to a startling season
Associated PressBart Bryant, a veteran of modest achievement until this year, coasts to a Tour Championship win.
Published November 7, 2005
ATLANTA - Little ever came easily for Bart Bryant until he turned the Tour Championship into a Sunday afternoon stroll among the magnificent colors of autumn at East Lake.
During his vagabond years of bouncing between qualifying school and minitours, he would lie awake at night and wonder if he should find a better way to support his family. When he did play well, he took himself out of contention because he was afraid to fail.
But when he tapped in a par putt to finish a wire-to-wire, record-setting victory at the PGA's Tour Championship, Bryant, 42, had only to look back at four spectacular days and one remarkable year to see how far he had come.
He closed with 3-under 67 to beat Tiger Woods by six shots.
His 17-under 263 broke by four shots the Tour Championship record set five years ago by Phil Mickelson.
And the $1.17-million check was more money than he had earned his first 18 years on the PGA and Nationwide tours. Someone who had never finished higher than 80th on the money list ended the year with more than $3.2-million to finish ninth.
"I'm thrilled beyond description," Bryant said. "To have struggled for as long as I did, and all of a sudden in the last 15 months to win three events; even if I hadn't won this weekend, this would all be worth it."
Not win? It wasn't even close.
Bryant started the day with a three-shot lead over Retief Goosen and birdied the first two holes. His only glitches were bogey from the rough on the 520-yard, par-4 fifth hole, the toughest at East Lake, and a 9-iron into the water on the par-3 sixth.
But he saved bogey with an 8-foot putt and steadied himself quickly.
"I felt like I was supposed to make that putt," Bryant said. "Two years ago, I don't think I would have believed I was supposed to make it. That may have been the biggest difference."
Not even a few roars ahead of him as Woods tried to mount a charge slowed his assault. The knockout came with a 25-foot birdie putt on the 11th, followed by a 30-footer for birdie on the 12th.
"He had a little spurt on the back nine that basically iced it," Woods said. "We're sitting there on the periphery, trying to play ourselves back in it somehow, and it looked like he wasn't going to make a mistake."
Woods had three birdies in a four-hole stretch to give himself a chance, but the best he could do was 69 to finish at 11-under 269. Woods earned $715,000 and finished his six-win, two-major year with $10.6-million.
Scott Verplank shot 69 and was third at 271.
Goosen, trying to become the first back-to-back winner of the Tour Championship, never did find his swing and bogeyed four of the first five holes on the back nine, sending him to 74.
Goosen had seen enough of Bryant the previous two days to realize his game was ideally suited for the course. The question was how he would handle the pressure of having a three-shot lead against a two-time U.S. Open champion, with a double Grand Slam winner in Woods another shot behind.
The answer was quick and decisive.
Bryant's first approach shot, from the fairway, skipped by the cup and stopped 6 feet away for birdie. His tee shot on the par-3 second came up 4 feet short for another birdie.
"Last night laying in bed, I really pictured myself getting off to a really hot start," Bryant said. "I felt like if I could do that, I'd have a really good chance to win. And luckily, that's what happened."
Bryant, who didn't win on the PGA Tour until last year in the Texas Open, added two big trophies this year, the Memorial in June and the season-ender for the top 30 on the money list.
"This exceeds my expectations," he said. "I didn't think I could make it into the Tour Championship, and I certainly didn't think I could win the Tour Championship. It's a really cool feeling, and it's one I'm going to relish for a long, long time."