Tiger Woods arrived at the Firestone course walking hand-in-hand with young son, Charlie and he heads to this week’s PGA Championship with an eighth WGC – Bridgestone Invitational trophy.
Woods captured a fourth win this year and his 79th PGA Tour success by seven shots with a final round 70 for a 15-under par winning tally in suburban Akron, Ohio.
It now leaves the World No. 1 just three wins behind Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82 PGA Tour wins.
And it is sobering reminder in a city that hosted the world’s first-ever AA meeting, that Woods has now captured 18 of the 42 WCGs he’s entered since the inaugural event in 1999.
Tiger Woods with an eighth WGC – Bridgestone Invitational trophy. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
“There is just something about this Firestone course that suits my eye and I just feel really comfortably around this golf course,” said Woods.
“I struggled in the middle part of my round on Saturday but then today I played pretty conservatively and the highest score I could have shot was 70 and force the other guys to shoot 62s or 63s.
“I just felt this was a perfect day to protect given the tough blustery conditions and it was tough to shoot a low number and easily to shoot a number around par.”
A Woods victory was never in doubt after Friday’s career-equalling low of 61 and with the remainder of the 73-player field fighting for second place.
It was defending champion, Keegan Bradley (67) and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (70) snaring the bridesmaid role at eight under par.
The result was Stenson’s second runners up finish in as many events after he was second at The Open.
Woods finished an incredible 49 shots ahead of Australia’s Daniel Popovic who tailed out the 73-player field at 34-over par.
As well, victory earned Woods a $1.4m pay cheque to take his earnings this year on the PGA Tour to $7.5m and his career earnings on the Tour to $US 118.5m.
But Woods now craves most is ending a five year Majors winning drought with success next week in suburban Rochester.
“I am really looking forward to the PGA and I’ve got three more days to get ready,” he said.
“I feel like my game is pretty consistent and that’s one of the things that I’ve noted this year while I’ve also putted well and I’ve been able to win.”
Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez (67) shared fourth on six under par while Bristol’s Chris Wood (71) was the best of the Brits finishing ninth in his WGC debut with a share of seventh at five under par and one shot fewer than Luke Donald (72).
Rory McIlroy has promised a surprise when he hosts tomorrow (TUES) night’s past PGA Championship winner’s dinner at the Oak Hill club.
It is customary for the immediate past champion to present a ‘homeland’ gift to the PGA of America but the defending champion would not reveal the item after finishing T27th.
While McIlroy’s ‘gift’ remained hush, hush his on-course adventures continued predictably with the current World No. 3 bogeying his last hole on the Firestone course for a fourth day running.
Minutes earlier McIlroy showed glimpses of last year’s PGA Championship winning form when he birdied the 16th and 17th holes on route to a last day 72 for a two over par tally.
On the plus side, McIlroy managed to hit more fairways on day four then any other day, albeit by one with nine of 14 fairways for an overall tally of 26 of 56 fairways over the course of the event.
“I thought I struck the ball a bit better today than I did the previous three days which was great and a good sign,” he said.
“I didn’t score that well the first day and didn’t hit it that well the middle two rounds but actually my short game was good so I could keep myself around par while today I played nicely with just a couple of bad holes over the back nine.
“So it was okay and my game is definitely going in the right direction.”
