AUGUSTA, Ga. – Tiger Woods saved his best for last at the Masters, shooting a 3-under 69 on Sunday to finish at 1-over-par total. He tied for 32nd place and it was good enough to clip Phil Mickelson by one shot.
Here are some observations from Woods’ final round at Augusta National:
• For once, I believe Tiger when he says that this was the highest possible score he could’ve shot. Most of the time it’s Tiger-speak, but this time it’s fact. He missed five putts from inside 6 feet, including a three-putt from that distance on the seventh hole. “I felt I hit it well enough off the tee to do some things, but I hit my irons awful for the week. I did not putt well today. I didn’t put it together when I needed to for the entire week,” he said.
• Par-5 performance was a huge issue for the first three days but not on Sunday. Tiger played the four holes in 5 under including a tremendous eagle on the 15th hole after making a putt from 30 feet. He birdied the other three par 5s.
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• Tiger’s worst finish as a professional at the Masters is a 40th-place tie in 2012. For much of the day he was hovering around that mark until the eagle on the 15th vaulted him up the leaderboard. Birdie on the 17th hole helped matters too.
• A three-putt bogey on the last hole was a bit of a bummer. After completing a five-hole stretch where he was 4 under, a simple par on the last would’ve been a fitting end. Instead the first putt didn’t break as much as he planned and it left him a 7-footer for par that he missed.
• He hit 15 of 18 greens, 11 of 14 fairways and needed 32 putts to complete his round.
• It’s anyone’s guess as to where Tiger will play next. There had been some scuttlebutt that he may play the Zurich Classic in New Orleans but it seems like a long shot now. Common sense would say he’ll play the Wells Fargo Championship, then The Players the following week.
“Generally after this tournament I put away the clubs for a while,” Tiger said. “I usually take three to four weeks off, throughout my career, and usually the clubs are put in the closet and I just kind of get away for a while.
“The run up to this even is pretty hard and pretty grueling. I pushed myself pretty hard to get ready.”
Source: Internet
