Vincent Publishing - Index

Vincent Publishing - 2008 Northern Trust Open - Index

Left: Tiger Woods hoists the Wanamaker Trophy after his victory at the
2007 PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
By the time he made the turn, the only suspense was whether
Woods could finish the final round at the difficult South Course
at Firestone Country Club without a bogey. He did, preserving
the 65 with a chip-in par on No. 9 and an eight-footer on the
final hole.
Woods became only the fourth player of all time to win the
YEAR IN REVIEW
Woods became the first major champion in seven attempts to
make a par on the 72nd hole at Southern Hills. It was also his
first major as a father, walking into the scoring room with wife
Elin holding their 2-month-old daughter, Sam Alexis.
Woods, who has never lost any major tournament (13-0)
when leading by more than one stroke going into the last
round, stretched his three-shot lead to five with back-to-back
birdies that appeared to siphon all the drama out of the final
major of the year. Austin made a surprising charge, however,
and Woods three-putted for bogey on the 14th, dropping his
lead to one.
Woods became the first major champion in seven attempts to make a par on
the 72nd hole at Southern Hills. It was also his first major as a father, walking
into the scoring room with wife Elin holding their 2-month-old daughter,
Sam Alexis.
same event on the same course, joining Alex Ross who won
the North and South Championship six times at Pinehurst just
after the turn of the past century, and Jack Nicklaus at Augusta
National.
The game’s No. 1 player had only played the week before a
major five other times, and the Bridgestone Invitational marked
the first since 2002. He’s only won one major when he has —
the 2000 PGA Championship where he beat Bob May in a
playoff.
Make that two.
It was a little more tense than he hoped, but Tiger Woods
proved as clutch as ever on Sunday at Southern Hills. He shot
a final-round, 1-under 69 to hold off a charging Woody Austin
and Ernie Els to win the 89th PGA Championship for his 13th
major title.
In steamy Tulsa, Oklahoma, Woods was challenged only
briefly along the back nine and captured the title to win at
least one major for the third straight season and move closer
to the Nicklaus standard.
Woody Austin’s consolation prize was earning a spot on the
victorious U.S. team for the Presidents Cup, where he became
legendary when he fell face first in a lake trying to hit an
approach shot, earning the name “Aquaman.”
That was as close as it got.
Woods hit two perfect shots on the 15th and holed a 10-footer
for birdie, pointing to the cup after it fell.
And that was all she wrote.
Woods, who finished at 8-under 272, has more majors than
the rest of the top 10 in the world combined. At age 31, he
is well ahead of the pace Nicklaus set when he won his
record 18 professional majors. Nicklaus was 35 when he
won his 13th.
The rush for the Cup
All of this set up the final four events of the FedExCup race with
Woods the hands-down winner of the regular season portion
with an astounding 30,574 points, which was 11,445 points
over Vijay Singh’s 19,129. To Singh’s credit, he posted seven
top-10s, which included two victories and a runner-up finish.
His victories were at the season-opening Mercedes
Championship, where Woods didn’t play, and the Arnold
Palmer Invitational, where Woods had won four times in a row
but recorded his second worst finish of the year with a tie for
22nd.
So there we all sat, perched in front of our televisions to see if
PGA TOUR Commissioner Tim Finchem’s idea to create inter-
2008 OFFICIAL TOURNAMENT MAGAZINE 59