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Tiger scorches field with 63 to take BMW title
Woods matches lowest final round of career, takes lead in PGA playoffs
 Tannen Maury / EPA Tiger Woods watches as his birdie putt on the first hole just misses the cup Sunday. It was one of few misses for Woods, who needed only 25 putts to shoot a 63 and win the BMW Championship. |
LEMONT, Ill. - Playing next to Tiger Woods for two days was daunting enough. It was when Steve Stricker watched him from 200 yards away on an elevated tee that he realized how tough it would be to beat him Sunday in the BMW Championship.
He arrived on the par-3 12th tee in time to see Woods, in his customary black pants and red shirt, rap a putt that traveled from one side of the green to the other until the ball disappeared after a 50-foot journey and gave Woods an unlikely birdie.
“It looked like he looked back to make sure that we were watching him make birdie,” Stricker said.
Not so, Woods replied.
“I didn’t do a Sergio,” Woods said with a smile, referring to when Sergio Garcia stared him down at nearby Medinah eight years ago in a fruitless chase at the PGA Championship.
Woods only cared about making birdies, and he got enough of them at Cog Hill to close with an 8-under 63 for a two-shot victory over Aaron Baddeley. Along the way, Woods shattered the tournament scoring record, collected his 60th career victory on the PGA Tour and moved atop the standings in the FedEx Cup with one week remaining.
“If you wanted to win this tournament, you had to make putts,” Woods said. “And I just happened to make them today.”
The 63 matched Woods’ lowest final round to win, and he finished at 22-under 262 to break by five shots the 72-hole record at Cog Hill first set by Scott Hoch in 2001 and matched by Woods two years later.
And while his 60th tour victory surprised him, the amazement wore off when he was reminded that it was only 13 months ago at the Buick Open that everyone made a fuss out of Woods winning No. 50.
Baddeley gave him a good chase until he ran out of birdies on the back nine and settled for a 66. Stricker was tied for the lead until his 3-iron clipped a tree and came up well short on the 12th, leading to a bogey no one could afford. He wound up with a 68 to finish alone in third, enough for him to move up to No. 2 in the FedEx Cup standings.
“There isn’t a lot you can do,” Stricker said. “I would have had to shoot 63 today to beat him. When you see him ahead of us making the birdies and hearing the roars, you know that he’s on a roll and not making many mistakes. It’s tough.”
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Woods goes to East Lake in Atlanta with a 3,133-point lead over Stricker and a 4,120-point margin over Phil Mickelson, who decided not to play this week.
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Only two other players — Rory Sabbatini and K.J. Choi — have a mathematical chance.
“Winning takes care of everything,” Woods said, whose best is a runner-up at East Lake.
All that mattered at the moment was winning at Cog Hill for the fourth time. It was Woods’ sixth victory of the year, and the $1.26 million pushed him over $9 million for the fourth time in his career.
ALSO ON THIS STORY |
The biggest mystery about the Tour Championship is the course on which they play.
The tour left a two-page notice on players’ lockers Sunday morning saying that record heat has severely damaged the greens at East Lake, forcing officials to cancel the pro-am round Wednesday and ban players from so much as setting foot on the greens until the first round on Thursday.
Stewart Cink, Tim Clark and Camilo Villegas all finished in the top 10 and earned enough points to move into the top 30 in the playoff standings and qualify for the Tour Championship.
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