It was only fitting that world No. 1 Tiger Woods delivered the definitive point in another American victory over their International foes at the Presidents Cup.
Woods amassed a perfect five victories in five matches in four days of competition — including snatching a crucial victory from a likely defeat on Saturday — to lead the US to a 19.5-14.5 victory.
“That’s what you expect out of your No. 1 player in the world,” said Australian Greg Norman, who captained the Internationals side drawn from everywhere except Europe. “You need your big gun, and he is their big gun.”
PHOTO: AFP
The big gun hasn’t always fired in team competition, however.
In five previous Presidents Cup appearances, Woods had 13 victories and 11 defeats, while his Ryder Cup record is 10 wins, 13 defeats and two draws.
This time around, however, there was no doubting Woods’ dominance.
Four of his wins came paired with world No. 3 Steve Stricker, starting with a 6 and 4 thumping of Geoff Ogilvy and Ryo Ishikawa in foursomes on Thursday.
Woods responded to the only adversity he and Stricker faced in trademark style, rolling in a 22-foot putt to keep their Saturday foursomes match against Mike Weir and Tim Clark alive, then sticking a three-iron within eight feet at the par-five 18th to win the match with a conceded eagle.
“Pretty cool,” Stricker said of the shots, but they were more than that to Internationals captain Norman, who called the Woods victory the “defining moment” of the penultimate day.
That’s the day the US stretched their lead from a slim one point to a three points that proved insurmountable in Sunday’s singles.
On his own in singles, Woods was able to exact a small measure of revenge with a 6 and 5 victory over Yang Yong-eun, the player who beat him for the PGA Championship title in August.
Yang’s PGA victory saw Woods finish the year without a major title for the first time since 2004.
Woods returned to action in February after an eight-month injury layoff in the wake of major knee surgery.
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