Woods wins another in Chicago
By MAUREEN LYNCH
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Shaw Suburban Media
LEMONT – Sunday afternoons that do not include Tiger Woods in a red polo shirt likely don’t seem right to Chicagoans.
Fans are so accustomed to Woods winning whenever he visits the area that should the iconic golfer ever lose here, spectators might demand refunds.
Woods, fortunately for Chicagoans, likes to win here, too, and shot a 3-under-par 68 on Sunday during the final round of the BMW Championship to finish with a 19-under 265 and secure his sixth win of the season, continuing a year Woods called one of his finest.
Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman finished tied for second at 11-under with 273s.
“To play as well as I have lately and not get the W’s has been a little frustrating,” Woods said. “I’ve been so close. It’s just been a matter of making a couple putts here and there and I would have won the tournaments.”
Woods’ putting difficulties have plagued him for the past month and cost him both the PGA Championship in late August and, most recently, the Deutsche Bank Championship.
But the world’s best golfer played his sharpest game on Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course, which was revamped by U. S. Open expert Rees Jones in hopes that the course could contend to host the 2017 U. S. Open.
The course record-setting 62 that Woods fired Saturday to drop to 16-under through three rounds and take a seven-shot lead on Brandt Snedeker and Leishman might have killed the U.S. Open chances.
But how can a man claiming to have one of the best years of an already-astonishing career be faulted for awing, even if it ends up robbing the Chicago area of a major?
Even Leishman, who was paired with Woods and Snedeker on Sunday, couldn’t help but marvel at Woods’ game.
“When he hit that shot [out of the trees on No. 9 to land on the green], I actually started laughing,” Leishman said. “... It was such a good shot.
“ ... As much as I would have loved to have beaten him, it was great to be inside the ropes with him watching. You can learn a lot from that.”
Woods struggled more with No. 9 than perhaps any other hole Sunday. His tee shot went too far right and landed on the cart path off the fairway, and his second shot landed between two oak trees to the left of the fairway in the rough.
He still managed to birdie the par-4 hole.
“My whole goal for the day was to shoot under par,” Woods said. “If I shot under par, I would force the guys to have to shoot the same number I shot yesterday to force it into extra holes. So that was the whole mindset.”
No one really came close.
Furyk’s 5-under 66 on Sunday helped him crawl back from modest play during the first two rounds – two consecutive 70s – and moves Furyk up 15 spots in FedEx Cup playoff points standings, from No. 18 to No. 3.
But no one caught Woods, who will enter The Tour Championship in Atlanta in two weeks poised to win his second FedEx Cup title.
“There were so many uncertainties at the beginning of the season,” Woods said. “ ... To come off a knee surgery and have this type of year, to be this consistent, is something I’m very proud of.”
