Tiger Woods roars again in the PGA Tour and achieved his first victory in an official tournament of that circuit since 2009 by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, endowed with 6 million dollars in prize money. The Californian former world number one had not won an official PGA Tour competition since September three years ago, when he won the BMW Championship. Last December he won the World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club in California, although this was not an official PGA Tour tournament.
In the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods went out to make his last round at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando as leader with a one stroke lead over Northern Ireland’s Graene McDowell and while the latter was sinking as he progressed in his round, the former world number one was strengthening his way to victory. He failed shortly after starting with a bogey on the 2nd, which he quickly solved with two consecutive birdies on the 3rd and 4th to definitively ensure his resurgence with two more on the 6th and 8th. He still allowed himself to fail on the 14th with another bogey, but at that moment nobody was able to snatch a long-awaited triumph from him. His 275 was already unreachable. At the considerable distance of five strokes was the only one who seemed able to embitter the triumph, McDowell, who began to lose his chances with a double bogey on the 1st. Then came a birdie and an eagle on the 6th to keep him back in the fight, but three bogeys in the second half of the course took him away from the victory. Tiger finally beat the Northern Irishman by five strokes with a card of 275, 13 under par. Third place went to England’s Ian Poulter, who totaled 282 strokes.
“I feel fantastic,” said Woods, who pocketed just over $1 million for his win.
Sergio Garcia missed the cut again and repeated the card with 75 strokes for a total of 289 to finish one over par, in 33rd place.
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