Even Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer couldn't match this.
Tiger Woods cruised to victory Sunday in the 100th Western Open, his 38th career victory on the PGA Tour and fourth of the season. It marks his fifth straight year with at least four victories, a feat no one else has managed.
And this is a guy who some say is in a slump?
PHOTO: REUTERS
Hogan, Palmer, Tom Watson and Lloyd Mangrum had four straight years with four or more victories.
The victory also made Woods the fifth three-time winner at the Western, the oldest stop on the PGA Tour. Hogan, Nicklaus and Palmer each won the Western twice.
The gaudy numbers don't stop there. Woods shot a 69 Sunday, giving him 21-under 267 for the tournament. That matches the tournament record set in 2001 by Scott Hoch.
Woods missed an 11-footer on the 18th that would have given him the record on his own. The crowd cheered when he putted out, but he still looked a little subdued.
Woods led the entire tournament, the first wire-to-wire winner at the Western since Nick Price in 1993. It's the fifth wire-to-wire victory in Woods' career.
He finished five strokes ahead of Rich Beem, the 13th time he's won by four strokes or better.
But give Beem credit, he at least added a small diversion to the inevitable. The winner of last year's PGA Championship opened the back nine with three birdies and an eagle in his first five holes to pull within five shots of Woods.
Beem couldn't take advantage of his last par-5, though, ending whatever slim chances he might have had of catching Woods.
Jim Furyk, back in Chicago for the first time since winning the US Open three weeks ago, finished seven shots behind Woods in a three-way tie for third. Mike Weir and defending champion Jerry Kelly also finished at 274.
But, really, what chance did anyone have of catching Woods? This victory was almost a gimme even before he teed off. Of the 31 tournaments he's led after 54 holes, he's won all but two of them. Plus with a six-stroke cushion to start, all he had to do was play it safe, and the victory -- not to mention the US$810,000 paycheck -- was his.
He did better than that, though. The first 11 holes at Cog Hill's Dubsdread course are as birdie friendly as an aviary, and Woods took advantage. He had five birdies and only one bogey through 11, and needed just 13 putts.
Even with his closest rivals so far back they may as well have been on a different round, he didn't let up.
He was clearly irked when he pushed his drive left and into deep rough off the par-4 No. 7. He still had a clear shot at the green, though, and he made a beautiful recovery, putting the ball pin-high on the edge of the green, about 18 feet from the hole.
The ball curled around the edge of the cup and finally dropped in, drawing a fist pump from Woods and cheers from the crowd. He wore a wide grin as he turned around to acknowledge the crowd.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier