Tiger Woods ends 924-day winless streak on PGA Tour, wins Arnold Palmer Invitational
Holds off 2010 U.S. Open champ Graeme McDowell
BY HANK GOLA / NEW YORK DAILY NEWSPublished: Sunday, March 25, 2012, 6:35 PM
Updated: Sunday, March 25, 2012, 6:37 PM
PHELAN M. EBENHACK/AP
Tiger Woods shoots 13-under par and wins his first PGA Tour event since the BMW Championship in Sept. 2009.
ORLANDO — He's back, at last.
Tiger Woods finished off his first official PGA Tour victory in 30 months and the 72nd of his career with a vintage final round at the Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday at the Bay Hill Club. He shot a 2-under par to get to 13-under for the week and win by five strokes over 2010 U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell.
Woods hadn't won since the BMW Championship in September of 2009, a month before his world exploded in a tabloid sex scandal. Injuries, coaching and caddie changes followed so that golf fans accustomed to his world dominance were wondering if he'd ever win again?
Now, with the Masters coming up in two weeks, his seventh victory at Bay Hill sets him up as the favorite for his fifth green jacket. With his confidence restored and his new swing tightened, he seems primed for another run at Jack Nicklaus' record of 14 major titles.
Woods, one of the best closers of all time, wasn't really threatened by McDowell, who began the day one shot back. The lead increased to three shots on the first hole when McDowell made a mistake with his approach shot. The miss was left but McDowell dumped it into a fried egg lie in the right bunker. He tried to play out sideways but ran it score the green into the far bunker and made double bogey six.
Woods gave a shot back on the second hole with the first of his two bogeys. It was mind boggling he was on the same line as McDowell's 40-foot putt and yet he misjudged his six feet to the left.
But after both players birdied No. 3, Woods restored his three-shot lead on the par-5 fourth, where he got up and down from a scraggly lie after running his chip 14 feet past the cup. Cursing at himself as he walked into the green, he calmly rolled in the birdie putt.
The lead was whittled to two on the par-5 sixth, where McDowell drained a 51-foot eagle putt after Woods had hit his approach from 256 yards to 17 feet. But on eight, Woods hit a perfect 8-iron from 182 yards to three feet and the lead only grew after that.
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