Tiger cards 3-under 67 in Round 4 of TOUR Championship
Tiger Woods didn’t collect the big payday he sought, but he closed out his 2013 PGA TOUR season in solid fashion Sunday in the final round of the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. He fired a 3-under-par 67 — his best round of the tournament — to finish at even-par 280 and tied for 22nd, 13 strokes behind winner Henrik Stenson, who earned $10 million for capturing the FedExCup title.
The 37-year-old Woods concludes 2013 with a tour-best five victories, including THE PLAYERS Championship and two World Golf Championships, and is a strong candidate to capture his 11th PGA TOUR Player of the Year Award, which will be announced Friday.
Tiger has already clinched his 10th official money title and his ninth Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average, winning the latter for the first time since 2009. He has also won his 11th PGA of America Player of the Year Award.
“I’m always looking to improve and become more consistent day in and day out,” Woods said. “There’s certainly some weeks where I was just off. I always wish I could play a little bit more consistent and have a chance each and every time I tee it up. That’s the intent. Whether it happens or not, it doesn’t always work out that way. But overall at the end of the year, I think it’s been a really good year.”
Tiger now has 79 career victories on the PGA TOUR, second only to Sam Snead with 82. In March, he regained the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking with his win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In 17 worldwide starts this year, Tiger missed only one cut, that coming at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
While Woods entered the TOUR Championship as the FedExCup Playoffs points leader, he started poorly and never contended. Tiger admitted to fatigue, having played seven of the last 10 weeks, and has been hindered by back spasms. Still, he finished second in the final FedExCup points standings and collected a $3 million bonus.
“There are days I just don’t have it,” Woods said. “Game doesn’t feel right. Body doesn’t feel right. Things just don’t work. But I still grind it out and post some numbers.”
With children Sam and Charlie and girlfriend Lindsey Vonn on hand to support him Sunday, Woods posted five birdies and two bogeys. On the front nine, he offset a bogey at the par-4 eighth hole with a 25-foot birdie putt at the par-3 second and a short birdie putt at the par-5 ninth to make the turn in 1-under 34.
On the back nine, Tiger hit a beautiful approach shot to the par-4 12th hole and made a birdie, added a 10-footer at the par-4 14th, and two-putted the par-5 15th for his last birdie of the PGA TOUR season. A poor drive into the right trees led to a bogey at the par-4 16th hole.
Woods wound up hitting seven of 14 fairways, 12 of 18 greens and used 28 putts.
Tiger will take next week off to rest and prepare for The Presidents Cup in two weeks at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. This marks the eighth time he will play for 12-member U.S. team that will face an international team. The American side holds a 7-1-1 advantage.
Also on Tiger’s upcoming schedule is a trip to Asia to play an exhibition match with Rory McIlroy on Oct. 28 in Haikou, China. He has also committed to play in the European Tour’s inaugural $7 million Turkish Airlines Open, Nov. 7-10, then concludes the year by hosting the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, Dec. 5-8 at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Proceeds benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation.
“We’re going to take the week off and kind of recoup and recover, get ready for the Presidents Cup, and then basically assess the year and what we need to work on in the offseason,” Woods said.
