Breaking Down Tiger Woods’ Win At Doral
It was more than just another win for Woods, who now has two tour wins this season. His play was reminiscent of the Tiger of the mid 2000s and his putting was some of the best of his career. He fought off a leaderboard Sunday that featured some of the best players in the world, including Phil Mickelson and Tiger’s weekend playing partner Graeme McDowell.
Woods has now won two tournaments (Torrey Pines and Doral) before the Masters from the first time since 2008, which coincidently enough just happens to be the last year that he won a major (U.S. Open). His 19 under par four day score was the highest in a victory since he also shot -19 in September of 2009 at the BMW Championship.
He also continues to be nearly un-beatable when he has a lead going into Sunday. With his win, Woods improves to 40-2 when holding a lead after 54-holes, a record nobody in the history of golf has even come close to.
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As for his putting, Woods did something that he had never done in his entire career. He attempted only 100 puts in the tournament, breaking his previous best of 101 putts at the 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Woods has a very unlikely person to thank for that. No it’s not his swing coach Sean Foley, but fellow tour pro and longtime friend Steve Stricker. The two ran into each other on the practice green on Wednesday and after a 45 minute session that included stance adjustment, Tiger went out and dominated the greens for four days. It’s only fitting that after his session with one of the greatest putters in the history of the game, Woods would go out and set a personal record for fewest putts in a round. What is even more ironic about the whole situation is that it was his putting coach, Stricker, who ended up being the tournament runner up, losing by only two strokes!
Woods will now take a week off before playing in another tournament that he has dominated over the years, The Arnold Palmer Invitational.
Mcllroy, other local golfers have impressive showings at Doral Â
Rory Mcllroy rebounded quite nicely from his opening round 73 with a 3-under 69 on Thursday. It was his first round under par in 2013 and very well might have been the confidence booster that the Palm Beach Gardens Resident needed. He then went out and fired a 7-under 65 on Sunday, shooting up the leaderboard and firing one of the lowest rounds of the tournament. What made his Sunday showing even more impressive was the fact that the course was playing at its toughest of the week. Most golfers struggled to put up low scores on Sunday, while Mcllroy seemed to be dialed in. His performance Sunday was good enough to get him his first top 10 finish of the season, finishing in a tie for 8th.
Keegan Bradley (Tequesta) rode the momentum of his fourth place finish at The Honda last week to another impressive performance at Doral. Bradley played consistent golf for the second week in a row carding rounds of 68, 68, 69, and 71 to finish at -12 and in seventh place. He was in contention for all four days and now has three top 10 finishes on the season.
Charl Schwartzel (Old Palm) and Freddie Jacobson (Hobe Sound) both played three great days of under-par golf before stumbling a little on Sunday. Despite both struggling on Sunday they finished in a tie for 16th. For Schwartzel it was his third top-20 finish in the four events he has played in this year on the tour.
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