Tiger wins Bridgestone for 16th win in WGC events
AKRON, Ohio (AP)—The W in WGC doesn’t stand for Woods. It just seems that way.
Tiger Woods sailed a cloud-touching 8-iron to within a foot of the cup on No. 16 while leader Padraig Harrington was imploding with a triple-bogey, ending all the drama Sunday in yet another World Golf Championship win for Woods at the Bridgestone Invitational.
“When I hit it I knew it was going to be a good one,” Woods said after his 70th career win in his 248th career start, a .299 winning percentage. “I thought it was going to be just a little bit past the hole. I was surprised it spun that much, considering it was that much downwind. But it came back and ended up a kick-in.”
The victory was the 16th in 30 WGC events for the world’s No. 1 player, including six times in the CA Championship, three times at the Accenture Match Play and a record seven times at Firestone Country Club in the Bridgestone and its forerunner, the NEC Invitational.
Only Sam Snead has more victories in a single tournament, with eight wins in Greensboro, N.C. But Snead achieved that on different courses. No one has ever dominated on a single course like this.
“Certain golf courses you just feel comfortable,” Woods said. “You see the tee shots, you see the approach shots, and the greens seem to be easier to read than others. This golf course is one of those for me. I think my results kind of show that.”
He has won the last four times he’s played at Firestone, winning three in a row before sitting out a year ago while he was recuperating from knee surgery. He also won three in a row from 1999-2001.
His closing 5-under 65 left him at 12-under 268, four shots better than Harrington and Robert Allenby.
Woods has won at least one WGC event in each of the last 11 years and altogether has pocketed $21.8 million in his WGC starts alone. That’s more than Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller and Raymond Floyd combined—in all the PGA Tour wins for their careers.
The victory was his fifth in a year that many—possibly even Woods—will consider disappointing if he doesn’t also capture the year’s final major championship, the PGA Championship this week at Hazeltine in Chaska, Minn.
“It’s going to be a quick turnaround,” Woods said. “I’ll be out there tomorrow. I’ll celebrate quickly.”
After taking a three-shot lead over Woods through 54 holes, Harrington said he looked forward to squaring off mano-a-mano with Woods in the final round.
But that advantage had evaporated within four holes. Playing in the same group, Harrington opened with four pars while Woods eagled the second hole and added a birdie on the fourth. He birdied the fifth to take the lead.
By the turn, Woods was up by two strokes and seemed to be in command. But bogeys at the 13th and 14th holes dropped him a shot back of Harrington, who had parred the first 10 holes before picking up his sole birdie of the round at the 11th.
No one else applied any pressure. Allenby’s closing 66 allowed him to slide into a tie for second with Harrington, who had a 72 to also finish at 8-under 272. Hunter Mahan (66) and Angel Cabrera (67) were another shot back, but never approached the lead.
With Harrington still up by a shot, both hit drives into the rough at the 630-yard, par-5 16th hole—dubbed “The Monster” by Arnold Palmer. Woods punched a shot into the fairway, but Harrington pulled his layup and it ended up on the slope of a trap. From there he hit a high shot that soared over the green and into thick rough.
Both players had been put on the clock for slow play earlier in the round, and then had been reminded they were falling behind on the 16th tee. Perhaps that caused Harrington to rush. Either way, the results were disastrous.
He hit a flyer from the deep hay behind the green, the ball rolling past the pin and into the lake that fronts the green.
“I just got it a little bit too much on the club face and didn’t get under it enough and it came out strong,” Harrington said.
After walking back down the fairway, taking a drop and hitting his sixth shot just over the green, he chipped on and hit the putt for a triple-bogey 8.
Meanwhile, Woods produced one of his characteristically clutch shots when most needed.
His 8 iron from 178 yards stayed in the air for a long time before coming down, then spinning back to within a foot.
“It was a superb shot. It was a phenomenal shot,” Harrington said. “But I was having my own troubles at that stage.”
Easy birdie. Four-shot swing. Another win at Firestone, and—ho hum— another win in a WGC event for Tiger Woods.

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You miss me much and want to have your news.
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Lets try "you are as dumb as dirt" "you all say or all of you say" "you all know you are a fraud"
I believe you may have meant Kobe Bryant who along with Lamar,Pau,Fish,and Ron will be bringing home another trophy to L.A. this year GO LAKERS.
HOOKED ON PHONICS CAN WORK FOR YOU TO.
Now consider yourself edumacated lol
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In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds."
Maybe this can help you understand reverse racism.....
"A truly post-racial society requires that we resist the temptation to create race-based policies for the purpose of correcting rancid injustices of the distant past."
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you guys are about as bad as us South Africans. Always bringing race into everything. The only race issue that needs to be discussed on this commentry is the race against time that Tiger and Padraig had to go thru.
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and @ Grene:
"Fact: You whites says you are superior to all other races."
"Fact: Whenever there is a topic about a black person especially and athlete you whites is the one to change the subject and talk about how terrible a black athlete is."
"Fact: White peopls always say that they are more intelligent than blacks and have never invented anythng important to society and this country."
"Fact: White people says they will always rule this earh and no black will ever rule."
If you truly believe ANY of what you've said here to be FACT you are beyond delusional.
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Fact:Tiger will Dominate golf until the year 2056 he will then turn into a ball of pure energy and return to his home planet Nori 8 Nostradamus predicted it already.
On a side note I LOVE BEER RUNS.
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I have heard this a million times over by you white people and the saying goes the same as you said like this----You blacks wear you past around your necks and this is all you whites can say because all of you is stuplid beyond stupidity and you are blind to see the true facts but in reality you do not want to see the true facts. Why? Because you are in denial about everything that do not go your way . So what do you do? You put it back on black people and blame them for everything that you do not want to agree with even though you know it is wrong . Fact: Whenever there is a topic about a black person especially and athlete you whites is the one to change the subject and talk about how terrible a black athlete is. Why? Instead of you whites talking about golf you all always talk about how bad Kolby Bryant or Michael Vick or that other black guy that ran over that man in Florida and how many times have I read you whites even talking about President Obama or Jessee Jackson and Al Sharpton which do not have anything to do with golf. And yet most people says racism is a thing of the past and it is all and good in America these days. Well I really thank Yahoo column from having this type of forum. Why? Because it truly let's the closet Klu Klux Klan which is yourself and others like you come out of hiding to prove that racism is alive and kicking and doing quite well here in the 21st century(2009). Fact: You whites always say blacks is the one whinning about racism and we blame you whites for everything. Answer to Fact: Then why when there was Affirmative Action which gave jobs and favored to blacks and other minorities you whites was the one whinning the most saying that it was unfair to even though some whites was less qualified than blacks. Only then you realized how blacks had been feeling all those years. Fact: Tiger Woods and other black athlets are hated by whites: Answer
to the Fact: Tiger Woods is beating everyone on the PGA and they mostly is all white. He is beating Phil Nickolson, Stuart Cink Jim Furyk and the rest. White people want to see Nickolson, Cink and Furyk win and they get disgusted and angry if a white golfer is not winning and this is a true fact. The same with the William Sisters in Tennis they are beating all the white players like Safina and Sharapova and the whites want to see white players win. The whites are looking at skin color only and not looking that Tiger and the William Sister are born Americans. Fact: White peopls always say that they are more intelligent than blacks and have never invented anythng important to society and this country. Answer to fact: Blacks are enrollled by the thousand in Major Universities from Harvard, Yale, Princeton down to city colleges in every llevel. Just read the facts how blacks have invented new types of medicene to developing new types of aircraft to desingning new types of automobile. No blacks belive that a white is superior to him and that is the biggest lie and a piece of bull. The bottom line is give a black child the same education as a white child and they both will succeed equally in every category and this has been proven time and time again. Fact: Hitler once though that his hand picked blue eyes and blond hair super human man was invincible. I often looked at that film back in 1936 in Germany at the Olympics when the first black man won a gold medal in the 100 yard dash to see who was the fastest man on the planet when Jesse Owens beat Hiltler's blue eyes and blond hair super human by 3 car lengths to get the gold and Hitler stood up and left the stadium in disgust and anger because he not believe Owens could beat his blue eyed blond hair superhuman which was suppose to be superior to all.
Fact: White people says they will always rule this earh and no black will ever rule. Answer to the Fact: The total race of Minorities is out numbering whites and just in a few years the Mexicans will out number the whites here is America and there will be a multi racial rule. Even in the bible Revelation speaks of this new rule and you can see it is really happening today and it is for the better. No one race has the right to rule over another race. In a multi race society every race is represented and treated equallly. In this world this is what the whites feared so many hudred of years was afraid of CHANGE---And change is coming no matter who do not like it. One thing for sure in this life and that is"----"Change nonthing stays the same.
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Thanks for showing us how its done in yet another memorable event. You may be the world's greatest golfer but your character exceeds your golf skills. The barriers you've broken are incredible and some people cannot seem to be able to handle it. Thanks for giving us your best.
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sense enough to realize that heroes come from all corners of all our great nation. Been playing
golf well over 27 years, love to have a dollar for each time I have seen somene throw clubs, yell,
cry after hitting a bad shot........Enjoy this ride with Tiger.........
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