Tiger Trumps Toms and Villegas at the Blue Monster

This tournament was shaping up to be an excellent one from the get-go. Tiger Woods led the way after Thursday’s opening round in which he fired a 64 the 65s of Camilo Villegas, Phil Mickelson, David Toms, Rich Beem, Zach Johnson, Scott Verplank, and Mark Wilson. Friday, Woods and Mickelson drew into a tie at -13, and both played together Saturday, with Tiger Woods once again eclipsing Phil by three as he did last year.

For perhaps the first time this year Tiger Woods seemed to be playing with at least his B+ game. He led the field in greens in regulation at 80.6% and missed only two putts within ten feet the whole week. Obviously, this one-two combo made Tiger the man to beat. And that’s exactly what the rest of the field tried to do.

A few in the group gathered at seven-under after Thursday kept the pedal to the floor on Friday taking advantage of the still-calm winds and soft greens. Mickelson got his game going and by the end of the day his scorecard read 66 – good for 13-under. The Colombian rookie Camilo Villegas, who is poised make his rookie season an outstanding one, matched Phil with a 66 of his own – including a stretch of six holes in which he carded five birdies. Camilo played host to some of the biggest galleries of the week, due in part to the large Hispanic and Latino populations of Miami and he thrived under the attention. American Scott Verplank managed to get home in 66 as well thanks to a back-nine 31. Woods shot a 67 due to a bogey on the fourth hole which brought his two-day total to 131, tied with Villegas, Verplank, and Mickelson.

Much to the gallery’s delight, Woods and Mickelson were paired together for Saturday’s round which everyone hoped would bring some of the electricity the two created on Sunday at last year’s Ford Championship. Unfortunately, Lefty forgot his game in his hotel room and fired off a yawn-inspiring even-par 72. Phil’s shot of the day came on hole 10, when he flailed a 3-wood wayyy right, hitting a man and destroying his watch. Lucky for Phil, his Callaway careened off the spectator’s timepiece and on to the fringe of the green. Mickelson is described by Rolex as, “a player willing to take chances other pros won’t.” Rolex cites one example of Phil’s daring and courageous shot-making prowess as, “skipping a ball off a lake on to the green for an eagle.” Rolex will no doubt chalk Mickelson’s latest bit of genius up to his precision shot-making and accuracy.

Woods played another solid round of golf, his only slip-up of the day was a double-bogey on the par-three ninth hole after cutting his tee shot into the drink. Camilo Villegas battled inconsistency on Saturday, with five birdies and two double-bogeys – including a costly one on 18. The eighteenth hole at Doral is one of the most punishing finishing holes players face all season on the PGA tour and Villegas found out why during the third round after pushing his tee shot far right and directly behind a banyan tree. After studying his options, the University of Florida All-American chopped out from behind the tree to the fairway of the first hole, then played over several palm trees with an excellent third shot to the green. Had he holed the putt, he would have been one shot behind Woods at -16. Instead he three-putted, missing his second putt from just over three feet. Villegas had been shaky on short putts all day so it wasn’t that surprising that this one got away from him. He finished the day with that double-bogey, putting him at T4 at -14.

Missing that putt may have been some sort of blessing in disguise for the Colombian because he would have been paired with Woods on Sunday and history shows that many players can’t perform to their abilities under that sort of pressure. Just ask Daniel Chopra. He started the day at T2 and finished with a 77 – good for 20th. Phil also struggled, finishing his front nine bogey-double-bogey and ended the day at +1 and tied for 12th. Villegas got back the two strokes he left on 18 the day before when he eagled the first. Later, however, he left numerous strokes on the greens, including the tenth, where he missed a short birdie putt.

It looked like David Toms would be the man to take on Tiger, and try he did, cutting Tiger’s lead to one stroke. However, after an uncharacteristically poor first putt on the 18th, Toms missed his second from ten feet, opening up a two-shot lead that had shrunk to one due to an uncharacteristic mistake by Woods on the 17th. Tiger watched Toms three-putt from the fairway and knew that he could win it with a bogey. “Anywhere inside the bleachers and I’m fine… just as long as I can make bogey,” Tiger said of his thought-process on the 18th after clinching victory.

In the end, Tiger maintained his perfect record in tournaments where he held more than a two-stroke margin after 54 holes.

After all, “a ‘W’ is a ‘W’.”

Pos    Player            To Par   R1   R2   R3   R4   Total
1      Tiger Woods       -20      64   67   68   69   268
T2     Camilo Villegas   -19      65   66   71   67   269
T2     David Toms        -19      66   66   70   67   269
4      Fredrik Jacobson  -15      70   67   68   68   273
T5     Lucas Glover      -14      67   67   71   69   274
T5     Tag Ridings       -14      68   69   66   71   274

Photo Credit: © AP