In what normally shapes up to be a boring December golf tournament, the final round of the Chevron World Challenge turned out to be a spectacular event. Tiger Woods dominated Sherwood Country Club the first three days of the tournament, but a little pesky Irishman hung around, sort-of the same way he just hung around at Pebble Beach in the U.S. Open, and sank two huge putts to rip the heart from Tiger Woods.
To be honest, Tiger blew the tournament. It was the first time he has lost a golf tournament after leading by four strokes going into Sunday. He looked nothing like he looked the first three days. His swing seemed to break down, the same way amateurs break down in high school tournaments. So to me, the swing is close, but not perfect yet. He probably needs more time with it and that time needs to be down the stretch in tournaments.
I am not going to take anything away from McDowell. He is the one who shot the 3-under par round today and he is the one who made the two clutch putts. Without doing those two things, he wouldn’t have won. It’s all just pretty fitting for a guy who ended a great year with a win over the best player in the world, in his own tournament.
In the end, Tiger Woods will be back this year. He’s pretty damn close, but just not close enough yet. Guess we will have to wait until Torrey Pines in 2011.
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