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Woods’ masterful setup

He wins Players Championship for 2nd straight tour title. Next: Augusta National.

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 27, 2001

PONTE VEDRA BEACH -- If he were so inclined, Tiger Woods could quit golf today and possess one of the best records of all time. He has won all four major championships. He has won the tournaments with big-name hosts. He has won World Golf Championship events.

Now he has a Players Championship title, too.

[Times photo: Name Here] With a large gallery looking on on Monday, Tiger Woods watches his ball go out of the sand and onto the green on the 11th hole of the final round of The Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach.

Playing the PGA Tour's headline event, with the biggest purse and best field in the game, Woods solidified his stature as the No. 1-ranked player in the world, shooting 5-under-par 67 Monday in the final round at the TPC-Sawgrass Stadium Course to hold off Vijay Singh.

Two weeks ago, the golf world wondered what was wrong with Woods after he had gone eight tour events without a victory. Not any more.

Woods has won two straight tournaments to vault to his customary spot atop the tour money list. He will take momentum into next week's Masters, where he will go for an unprecedented fourth consecutive major championship as one of the biggest favorites in tournament history.

"It's superhuman, some of the stuff he does," said Paul Azinger, referring to the miraculous 60-foot birdie putt Woods made at the 17th hole Saturday and the 90-foot chip-in for eagle he had Sunday. "That's what makes the guy that good. It's just weird. I don't know what else to say."

Woods, 25, started the rain-delayed final round at the 10th hole and promptly hit his approach shot to 6 inches for an easy birdie. He added birdies at the 12th and 16th holes, narrowly averted disaster at the par-3 17th for par, then bogeyed the last hole for a one-shot victory over Singh.

The $1,060,000 Woods pocketed pushed him past Joe Durant to the No. 1 spot on the money list with $2,255,857.

It was the 26th victory of Woods' five-year career. You would be hard-pressed to name a tournament of significance he has not claimed. He joined Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win all four majors and the Players Championship; he has won Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament, Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill Invitational (twice) and the Byron Nelson Classic. He has won two World Golf Championship events, along with the Tour Championship.

Not that Woods is in need of motivation. He would love to become the first player to win the Players Championship and the Masters in the same year. And winning at Augusta National would make him the first player to hold all four majors at the same time.

"I feel as if I'm headed in the right direction, no doubt," Woods said. "The shots that I am hitting now, I feel very pleased at what I am able to do on the golf course. They are starting to come together."

But Woods needed some good fortune as well. His birdie putt at the 17th Saturday was one for the ages, a putt he admitted would be difficult to duplicate. His tee shot at 17 on Monday was inches from rolling into the water, and he managed to convert a clutch par putt to keep a two-shot lead. Then his hottest pursuer, Singh, inexplicably made triple bogey at the 14th hole before almost catching Woods at the end.

"One bad swing," said Singh, who will defend his Masters title coming off four consecutive top-four finishes on the PGA Tour (along with two victories in Asia). "That's all it took for me. I was playing pretty good. I was feeling really comfortable out there. But one bad hole ... 14 was my killer blow this week. And I guess that's all it takes when you are playing the final round of a tournament this big. You cannot make mistakes like that."

Singh had planned to fade his ball into the fairway off the tee but pull-hooked it into the water. After a drop and a 3-wood third shot, Singh missed the green, chipped past the hole and two-putted for triple-bogey 7.

But he didn't give up. He eagled the par-5 16th -- turning his putter sideways to be able to hit the ball from the wooden edge of the water hazard -- and birdied the par-3 17th to pull within one, before Woods followed with a birdie at the 16th for a two-shot cushion. That allowed Woods the luxury of bogeying the 18th.

"I expected everything I saw," said third-round leader Jerry Kelly, who played with Woods in the final pairing and shot 73 to finish fourth, two shots behind Bernhard Langer. "He's the best player in the world. He showed it. I mean (5 under) ... on a fantastic golf course. All the credit is to him."

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