Recap; Final rounds highlights of Chevron World Challenge
The Sunday afternoon was a blast, when the tournament stepped into the play-off between Graeme McDowell and Tiger Woods. The Irish smacked a birdie in the face of the American and surged into lead.
Chevron World Challenge led Tiger Woods to a new direction. He led it until the last hole, but lost it in the play-off when Graeme reeled a birdie to take a two-stroke lead over Tiger. The former world number one failed to recoil
his lost throne, but revived his swings, which he had nearly lost in the past one year.
Four strokes behind was Paul Casey. The Scot remained vaulted to 69 with the help of six birdies against three bogeys. He started out slow, but after dropping the first shot at the fifth, picked three points on the closing holes,
and wrapped with two-under. On his way to the back, he carved three more birdies, but could not enjoy the edge and lost them to equal number of bogeys.
With five birdies and one bogey, Rory McIlroy stood on the fourth place of the leader board, which carried a purse of $5 million. The 21-year-old Irish faltered in the second and the third round, but picked up pace at the last
moment. On the fifth place was Hunter Mahan with a score of 69.
Stewart Cink and Ian Poulter smashed a score of nine-under-par to take a share in the sixth spot. The veteran who had all the attention channelized on him failed to fulfill his bid and could not override Tiger Woods. The 34-year-old
Englishman eagled the par-fifth in the final round and gave an impression that he was up from the nap, but went back to his normal pace: he drafted two bogeys, three birdies, and wrapped the day with a 69.
The winner of the FedEx Cup, Jim Furyk parred the final round and took a one-stroke edge over Steve Stricker. Furyk failed to cross the boundary of 70s in the 54-hole session and helped only 12 birdies. His worst performance was
seen in the second round in which he made a single birdie and gave it back after double bogeying the sixteenth.
Seven players failed to keep the scores in the realms of par: Steve Stricker (+1), Nick Watney (+2), Camilo Villegas (+3), Bubba Watson (+3), Dustin Johnson (+4), Anthony Kim (+4), and Matt Kuchar (+7).
Kuchar seized the lowest spot of the leader board with 295 strokes. Ironically, all the bottom four spots were seized by the Americans, who could have enjoyed the edge of home course.
Where ten other Americans failed to set a mark, Tiger proved the importance of home course. After a gap of twelve months, the 34-year-old picked his first eagle in the second round. While talking to the press Woods said, "The way
I'm playing right now, yeah, I would like to continue playing. Even though I lost and made countless mistakes in the middle part of the round, it said a lot for me to come back and put my swing back together again."
Woods was right and so was Graeme McDowell, who acknowledged the improvement in his swings.
McDowell said, "He used to appear invincible. Of course, he has made himself appear more human in the last 12 months. But there's something a bit special about his golf game, and I fully expect that mystique to return as the golf
clubs start doing the talking again."
The weekend ended with G-Mac transformed into the proud holder of four titles and Tiger as the first time runner-up. It was the fourth time in seventeen years that Tiger lost the play-off, but despite all odds, the legend came
back to life, and chances are that he will continue like one.
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