RSS
Home
Woods rings up victory at AT&T National over 62-gunning Mahan
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Tiger Woods stared down Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan to win the AT&T National by 1 stroke
The future stars of the PGA Tour went head-to-head with Tiger Woods today at the AT&T National, and it was history that prevailed. Before Sunday, Tiger Woods had held a share of the 54-hole lead in a tournament 48 times and won 45 of them; a staggering statistic that underscores just how difficult it is to beat Woods in a final pairing.
Anthony Kim, poster-child of The Future of the PGA Tour, was tied with Woods going in to the final round, and had the pleasure of being paired with Woods in tournament play for the first time ever. "I'll be ready," Kim said after his round on Saturday. CBS golf announcers Jim Nance and Nick Faldo set the stage for the battle between Woods' strategy and Kim's aggression. "Strategy has a 12-foot putt, agression a 40-footer," Faldo said at one point.
What everyone overlooked was the rock-solid game of Hunter Mahan. While Woods was busy intimidating Kim and strategically grinding out a few strokes' separation, Mahan was puring the ball and making (almost) every putt he faced. Mahan shot a three-under 32 on the front nine to put himself in position to make a drastic move. His five-under 30 on the back nine was marred only by a bogey on #14 and a three-putt for par on #16.
Mahan's 62 ties the course record set by Kim a few days prior, but deserves an asterick since it was on the more challenging conditions of a Sunday layout. It put Mahan at -12 for the tournament with the clubhouse lead and tied with Woods, while Tiger and Anthony were still out on the 12th hole. "You can win the tournament or you can lose the tournament from here," said Woods. "Just got to keep plodding along and hopefully sneak one or two birdies coming in and get the title."
Woods played solid golf on the last six holes, but he won the tournament on a par-5 hole where he never found the fairway. On the 16th hole Woods drove the rough left of the fairway, then missed his 254-yard approach shot into the rough immediately right of the hole. His subsequent chip shot to 20 feet left him with a relatively flat birdie putt that would be deemed improbable for most players, but standard operating procedure for Woods.
After draining his putt for birdie Woods went on to make workman's pars on the final two holes, edging out Mahan by a single stroke. Defending champion Kim was never able to recover from some seemingly Tiger-induced jitters (and self-induced drama) on the front nine, and finished four shots back.
Kim, ever the aggressive one, opened with a birdie but missed the fairway badly on the fifth hole, setting up a bogey that brought him back to Woods. AK's subsequent drives were off the mark, and he made heroic putts for pars on #6 and #7. But his drive on #8 was actually in another fairway, and by then Tiger was making birdies and in another gear.
AK has all of the talent he needs to be Rory McIlroy's competition when Woods steps down, but Kim needs to continue to mature as a player and as a performer. The over-dramatic club-drops after bad drives on the tees of #5 and #10 would be fine in a casual round, but are below the level of professionalism one expects from someone with his talent. He's already shown a huge amount of growth from last year to this one, and it will be a pleasure to continue to watch him excel at the game.
If Kim is the future of golf, Mahan is inching ever closer to becoming a major factor in its present. Mahan has been in the hunt in all four of the last four tournaments he played, and was one bad bounce away from being in contention for the lead at the U.S. Open. There is still a lot of golf to be played in 2009, and Mahan still has a great chance to more than double his career win count.
As for tournament host Tiger Woods, his 68th career PGA win moved him to the top of the FedEx Cup points race for 2009. He added another peculiar stat to his resume: he's won every pre-major warm-up tournament he's played this year. Which means that you should bet the farm if woods opts to play a tournament between the British Open and the PGA Championship.
Related Articles:
Comments
