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Tiger Woods snares 1-shot victory at Doral
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-06 09:24
MIAMI - Tiger Woods knew he had to keep making birdies to stay ahead of the
pack, and he delivered the kind of shots that make him so difficult to beat.
Everything changed on the 18th hole Sunday in the Ford Championship.
Golfer Tiger Woods
watches his tee shot on the fourth tee Sunday, March 5, 2006, during the
final round of the Ford Championship at Doral in Doral, Fla.
[AP] | All he needed was a bogey. He did that,
too.
With a one-shot lead, his ball in the rough and a 9-iron in his hand, Woods
watched from 170 yards away as David Toms ran his 60-foot putt to the bottom of
the green, then missed the next one to fall two shots behind.
"I just said, 'Anything in the back bleachers, right bleachers, just anything
over there to the right and over the water was all I had to do," Woods said. "I
was just trying to play for 5. I wasn't even trying to make par."
Despite a bogey-bogey finish on the Blue Monster, Woods closed with a 3-under
69 for a one-shot victory over Toms and Colombian rookie Camilo Villegas. It was
the 13th time he has successfully defended a title on the PGA Tour, and he
became the first player in 25 years to win back-to-back at Doral.
Even more frightening for his peers is that Woods appears to be hitting his
stride.
He now has won four of his last six tournaments (two overseas), with the
exceptions being a third-round loss in the Match Play Championship and
withdrawing from the Nissan Open with the flu when he was 11 shots behind.
"I've put myself there in virtually every event, which is nice," Woods said.
And he keeps getting plenty of help, not that he needs it.
In all three of his victories this year — the Buick Invitational, Dubai
Desert Classic and Doral — his closest challenger made bogey on the last hole.
"I look at it this way — I put myself there," Woods said. "If I put myself
there enough times, those things are going to happen, as well as other guys are
going to make birdies to beat me. That's the way it goes. As long as I'm there
each and every time, it's not a bad place to be."
He hit 9-iron so far to the right that it wound up in a bunker, nearly 100
feet from the hole, slightly against the back lip. The ball sat up on a rake
mark, making the shot slightly easier, and Woods blasted out to 12 feet.
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