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Perfection remains a long way off for Woods
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| Tiger Woods holds the Walter Hagen Cup following his victory over Stewart Cink in the final of the Accenture Match Play Championship golf tournament at The Gallery Golf Club at Dove Mountain, in Marana, Ariz., on Sunday. ASSOCIATED PRESS |
Four consecutive wins have all come in record fashion.
By DOUG FERGUSON
Associated Press
MARANA, Ariz. — The
closest anyone came to a
perfect season on the PGA Tour was Ben Hogan.
He won every major
championship he played in 1953, and every official
tournament he entered except for the Seminole Pro-Am Invitational, where he tied for second. Then again, Hogan only played six times that year because of battered legs from a bus accident.
Tiger Woods will play no more than 17 events on the PGA Tour this year, so a 2-0 start might be a little early for anyone to get excited.
Even so, expectations were as high as the desert sun at noon when Woods left Arizona with yet another victory. It was his fourth in a row on tour since early September, all done in record fashion.
He set a 72-hole scoring record at Cog Hill outside Chicago and won by eight shots at the Tour Championship and the Buick Invitational, both record margins. On Sunday, he smoked Stewart Cink 8 and 7 in the Accenture Match Play Championship, the
biggest blowout in the finals in 10 years of a tournament that Woods considers the toughest to win this side of a major.
“I think this certainly is the best stretch I’ve every played,” Woods said.
Strong words — downright scary — considering that Woods won nine times,
including three straight majors, in 2000 and that he won six consecutive PGA Tour events at the end of 2006, a streak that reached seven until losing in the Match Play the following year.
Woods, who also won in Dubai earlier this month, has never before started a season with three straight victories, and it is hard not to speculate how long he can keep winning given his history at some of the tournaments coming up.
Next is the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 13-16 at Bay Hill, where Woods won four straight times from 2000 to 2003. The week after that is the CA Championship at Doral, where he has won the last three years.
Then comes the Masters April 10-13.
“He just morphs his game into the courses,” Cink said. “So I don’t think there’s a course that’s going to present him with a real obstacle as far as him not being a favorite.”
closest anyone came to a
perfect season on the PGA Tour was Ben Hogan.
He won every major
championship he played in 1953, and every official
tournament he entered except for the Seminole Pro-Am Invitational, where he tied for second. Then again, Hogan only played six times that year because of battered legs from a bus accident.
Tiger Woods will play no more than 17 events on the PGA Tour this year, so a 2-0 start might be a little early for anyone to get excited.
Even so, expectations were as high as the desert sun at noon when Woods left Arizona with yet another victory. It was his fourth in a row on tour since early September, all done in record fashion.
He set a 72-hole scoring record at Cog Hill outside Chicago and won by eight shots at the Tour Championship and the Buick Invitational, both record margins. On Sunday, he smoked Stewart Cink 8 and 7 in the Accenture Match Play Championship, the
biggest blowout in the finals in 10 years of a tournament that Woods considers the toughest to win this side of a major.
“I think this certainly is the best stretch I’ve every played,” Woods said.
Strong words — downright scary — considering that Woods won nine times,
including three straight majors, in 2000 and that he won six consecutive PGA Tour events at the end of 2006, a streak that reached seven until losing in the Match Play the following year.
Woods, who also won in Dubai earlier this month, has never before started a season with three straight victories, and it is hard not to speculate how long he can keep winning given his history at some of the tournaments coming up.
Next is the Arnold Palmer Invitational March 13-16 at Bay Hill, where Woods won four straight times from 2000 to 2003. The week after that is the CA Championship at Doral, where he has won the last three years.
Then comes the Masters April 10-13.
“He just morphs his game into the courses,” Cink said. “So I don’t think there’s a course that’s going to present him with a real obstacle as far as him not being a favorite.”
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