An imperious Tiger Woods completed his processional march through the field at Firestone without missing a step in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational. Woods finished on -15, seven shots ahead of his nearest rivals defending champion Keegan Bradley and Henrik Stenson both on eight under.
The second round of 61that put him in the unassailable position earned him the winner’s purse of €1.13 million and 600 FedEx Cup points a week before the best golfers in the world assemble for the USPGA Championship in Oakhill, Rochester, where Rory McIlroy will defend his title.
But as Woods sensibly negotiated his way around the Akron, Ohio course with a near flawless 18 holes that protected as much as extended his final round lead, McIlroy failed to find the spark that would suggest his efforts next week to defend his USPGA title will be anything less than difficult.
It wasn’t quite the build up to the Major that he wanted as he ended his weekend on two over par 72, to follow rounds of 70, 71 and 69. He has three days to find something.
It was Woods’ 18th World Golf Championship win and his fifth victory of the year making 2013 the 10th year in which he’s won at least five times on the tour. His eighth career win at the Bridgestone Invitational also marked his 79th career PGA Tour win, which leaves him three behind Sam Snead’s record of 82.
Broke nicely
Woods went into the final round as the outrageous favourite with a seven shot lead over second placed Stenson and even in the early exchanges things broke nicely for him with none of those chasing making any inroads to his score as he ground out the pars.
While a few of his drives found light rough, Woods relentlessly hit greens and rolled the ball up to the cup, pleased to play a conservative and error free golf. The longer the round went on and the cleaner his card looked, the less likely it was that a bolter would come out of the chasing group. The 14 times Major winner parred all of the holes on the front nine to turn on level par 35.
While Keegan Bradley, Miguel Jimenez, Jason Dufner and Luke Donald all moved up the leader board and jockeyed for position, they were really just vying for second place. To say any of them were actually chasing Woods would be a gross misrepresentation. None were any threat allowing Woods the luxury of maybe thinking about his momentum and this week’s challenge, where he is searching for his first Major win since the 2008 US Open.
After rattling out nine straight pars, his first birdie finally came on the 410 yard par 4 10th hole, an eight foot putt final dropping for him to go to -16, his closets rivals at that stage Jimenez, Bradley, Dufner and Stenson all on -7, a mere nine shots behind.
Conservative game
It continued in the vein with more pars dropping through 13 but he three putted the par four 14th hole for his first dropped shot of the round and fell back to -15.
It stayed like that for the entire round, various names scrambling around and Woods serenely playing a conservative game, safe in the knowledge that there was absolutely no Sunday move on the offing and finishing on level par.
“It fits my eye. I feel comfortable here.” said Woods. “For some reason it just comes out and I put it together. I just played conservative. I’ve got three more days to get ready now. I feel my game is pretty consistent.”
Ireland’s Graeme McDowell shot 72 after three rounds of 71 to sign for +5 and bring his weekend to a close. Five bogeys on the front nine to go out in 38 hurt his chances to finish higher, although 34 shots on the back straight left him in a mid-field finish.
Lower third
Shane Lowry shot a fine 69 in his final round to end up on seven over par. The Offaly man birdied three of the last four holes to smarten up his card but ended his weekend in the lower third of the field.
One of the best rounds of the day came from Germany’s Martin Kaymer, who posted a 66 on the final day for -4.
