Sport
He’s back!!! – Tiger Woods earns first PGA win since 2009
It was McDowell who took down Woods in a shocker at the end of 2010 by rallying from four shots down to beat him at the Chevron World Challenge, something long considered unthinkable. And it was McDowell, speaking for so many others on tour, who suggested last August that the red shirt on Sunday was not as intimidating as once was.
McDowell was as formidable as ever. He couldn’t keep up.
The former U.S. Open champion gave Woods a big cushion on the opening hole when his approach buried so badly in the bunker that only the top half of the ball could be seen. He blasted out through the green into another bunker and made double bogey. That gave Woods a three-shot lead, and McDowell never got closer than two the rest of the way.
But he put up a good fight. McDowell took a free drop from a sprinkler head, going from the rough to the fringe, and holed a 45-foot birdie putt after Woods was already in tight for birdie.
Woods hit a towering 3-iron from 267 yards over the water on the par-5 sixth, and before he could attempt his eagle putt from just outside 15 feet, McDowell made his from 50 feet.
Woods was in total control of all aspects of his game, the final two holes of the front nine showed it. Woods hit an 8-iron from 182 yards that cleared the bank by a few yards and rolled within 4 feet for birdie on No. 8. And on the next hole, McDowell missed a 4-foot par putt to fall four shots behind.
McDowell missed three putts inside 10 feet early on the back nine — one of them for par — and then was merely along for the ride.
“He’s going to be a force at Augusta,” said Ian Poulter, who shot 74 and finished third.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
