The colors were the same – red and black, as always – even as the man wearing them sported an unfamiliar bow around his neck and an unusually early tea time.
Tiger Woods has been through most of the week. Not great, not terrible, just plain. But then, with the pressure off and no crowds present to murmur and cheer his every move, Woods relaxed and put the most beautiful round of his tournament together. His five-birdie, two-bogey Sunday was just what he needed after two straight two-over rounds that jumped him from any hope of controversy. Woods finished with a 67 on the round and 1-under in the week.
“I think what I came out with this week is that I felt I was competitive,” Woods said. “If I had made a few more putts early on Friday, and the same thing with Saturday, I felt like I would have just been here with a chance I came today.”
Starting Saturday night, Woods dropped to 59th place, 11 strokes ahead of Dustin Johnson. He struggled all week with his pits, unable to live up to the speed of the greens. But Sunday afternoon, he managed to find another gear, especially on the back nine.
“I feel a little better today,” Woods said after his round. “The greens were not so fast, and certainly not so clumsy … The golf course played a little slower.”
Woods now has a few weeks to get ready for the two remaining majors of the year: the September US Open and the November Masters. He will in any case be able to play the early rounds of the FedEx Cup playoffs of the PGA Tour. If he can figure out how to channel what he brought to TPC Harding on Sunday, especially on the green, he will have a better chance of staying in controversy longer over the weekend.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him with tips and story ideas at [email protected].
