Tiger Woods closes his bid for the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on a strong note Part-2
The former world number one is coming out of a tough stretch of more than two years where he was denied a single title. He dropped out of the top-50 on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) for the first time in 15 years.
His struggle was compounded by the burgeoning knee and Achilles injuries in the middle of the year. He decided to play at the Players Championship going against his doctor’s advice and severely damaged his left knee.
He was later seen limping off the course at the TPC Sawgrass after the opening nine holes. He missed the US Open as well as the Open Champion and returned at the PGA Championship, missing the halfway cut.
Woods returned to mainstream golf at the end of the season and landed on his favourite hunting ground, the Australian Open, finishing for an impressive joint third.
He went over to card another finish at the Australian Masters before heading into the President’s Cup. He started off the President’s Cup on a disappointing note but pulled in a glorious final round victory to guide the American team to a stellar victory.
Woods have been working diligently with his swing coach Sean Foley and says he is hopeful of a turnaround in his spiralling career.
He said at the end of the second round, "I thought I played well," said Woods. "A lot of the things Sean (Coach Sean Foley) and I are working on are starting to feel very comfortable. But it's tough out there”.
As the defending champion Martin Kaymer failed to make the cut through the halfway mark and while world number two Lee Westwood kept struggling with his neck injury, Woods contemplated a victory in sight.
It turned out, his third round venture was the most spectacular of his opening rounds on Abu Dhabi as the former world number one finally tamed the course to his strong putting.
He pulled in a stunning six-under, 66 on the third day and soared to the top of the leaderboard, sharing lead with South African George Coetzee at one point.
“It didn’t seem like I did a lot of things right, but I didn’t do a lot of things wrong either,” said Woods,
He finally grabbed the third round lead at the end of the day, tied with Englishman Robert Rock with an aggregate of 11-under, going into the final round.
Starting off with two consecutive birdies on the opening three holes, Woods was all set to land the coveted title until the consecutive bogeys on par-three, 4th and par-four, 5th pushed him down the leaderboard.
Rock also started off on a strong note pulling in three birdies earlier in the day, further strengthening his lead on the top. He fell for a bogey before making the turn and was head-on with McIlroy and Woods for the top slot.
To be continued...
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