Tiger Woods Wins Arnold Palmer Invitational
Tiger Woods secured his sixth tournament win during the Arnold Palmer Invitational over the weekend. Woods won after he took a chance shot and sunk a putt that was 20 feet away with his five-iron. Not only was Woods excited – but his fans and the crowd were overjoyed and amazed. Somehow though they knew he had it in him.
Woods’ first priority was to knock his downhill, breaking putt to tap-in distance, but the longer he thought about it, the more he wanted to make it. “I kept telling myself, ‘I’ve done this before and I can do it again’,” Woods said. “I was just trying to make sure I got the speed right. I felt good over the putt. I hit the putt down there and it took forever to start breaking, but once it started, it went straight right and in the hole.”
It was Woods’ 64th career victory on the PGA Tour, equal third on the all-time list with Ben Hogan, behind only Sam Snead (82) and Jack Nicklaus (73). This was a more hard-fought victory than most recently, coming after a slow start, a seven-stroke halfway deficit and a tight battle down the stretch with Bryant. But Woods did what he had to do, shooting a final-round 66 to finish with a 10-under-par 270, one stroke ahead of Bryant (67), with Cliff Kresge (67), Vijay Singh (69) and Sean O’Hair (69) another two strokes behind.
Woods, who collected £515,099 for his fifth title at Bay Hill, will savour his latest victory more than most, although he is reluctant to compare. “I don’t know where it ranks,” he said. “It was great to make the putt, but I was so excited with the five iron I hit in there to give myself a putt at it. You have to understand I had not hit the ball well the last three days, and then to have that shot with everything on the line, and to hit a shot and give myself a putt at it, I was so fired up.”
Bryant, who watched Woods’ winning putt after finishing in the previous pairing, was obviously disappointed. “What are you going to do?” he said. “I was pretty hopeless sitting there in the trailer, but I did what I thought I was supposed to do, which was put the pressure back on Tiger to make the play. He has a habit of making it when he needs to.”