Tiger Woods won the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open today after a pulsating duel with New ZealanderMichael Campbell was decided by a wonder shot from the American world number one at the 13th hole.
The pair reached that par-four hole neck-and-neck at 19 under par only for Woods to hit a seven iron 175 yards directly into the hole for anoutrageous eagle-two.
After repairs to the cup from the Woods missile, a stunned Campbell left his birdie putt short and Woods was into a two-stroke lead he neverlooked like giving up.
Woods, clad in his customary last day red, added another birdie at the 15th to close with a 66 and a 22-under-par total of 266, four strokes clearof Campbell who carded a 70.
He lifted the top prize of close on 400,000 dollars to go with appearance money reported at up to two million dollars.
Woods and Campbell, who led after the first two rounds, had started the day level at 16-under-par, one stroke behind third round leader EduardoRomero of Argentina.
But the player known as The Cat, singed his whiskers with a wild drive and a bogey six at the par-five first and slowly dropped out of contentionleaving the stage clear for Woods versus Campbell.
The lead see-sawed between them with Campbell giving as good as he got until Woods pulled the seven iron out of the bag on the 13th fairway.
The win represented a remarkable comeback for Woods, who had been 10 strokes behind Campbell at the halfway stage, before closing the gapwith a scintillating third-round 63.
Woods was making his 2001 European debut, following his runaway win in the British Open at St Andrews 10 months ago. He came into thetournament as the first man in golfing history to hold all four Majors at the same time.
The win was his second in three years at the Deutsche Bank tournament and his fourth win in 11 events this year, all coming in the last five.
Woods nexts tees off in Europe at the British Open at Royal Lytham in July to be followed by the Lancome Trophy outside Paris in September theweek prior to the Ryder Cup at The Belfry.
But he will be in action in the United States in the Memorial Tournament in a fortnight as his warm-up for the defence of his US Open title atSouthern Hills, Tulsa on June 14th-17th.
Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley finished on fifteen under and thirteen under respectively. -AFP