Woods' victory silences Sergio
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, May 14, 2013
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Tiger Woods talks with his caddie Joe LaCava before hitting his shot from the fairway to the 18th green during the final round of The Players Championship in Florida on Sunday. |
Tiger Woods shook off a double bogey at the 14th hole on Sunday and held on to win the US PGA Tour Players Championship, setting another career milestone in the process.
Woods, who had a share of the lead with Sergio Garcia and David Lingmerth after completing the weather-disrupted third round on Sunday morning, carded a final-round 70 for a 13-under par total of 275.
That put him two strokes in front of Swedish PGA Tour rookie Lingmerth, Jeff Maggert and Kevin Streelman.
Garcia, tied for the lead at the 17th, finished with a quadruple bogey and a double bogey, giving Woods the last laugh after a couple of days of verbal sparring between the two.
Woods won the US tour's flagship event, worth US$9.5 million this year, for the second time - more than a decade after his victory in 2001.
Given their public sniping at each other over the weekend, it was only fitting that Garcia had the best chance to beat Woods.
Their dispute started on Saturday when Garcia complained in a TV interview that his shot from the par-5 second fairway was disrupted by cheers from the crowd around Woods, who was some 50 yards away in the trees and fired them up by taking a fairway metal out of his bag. He said Woods should have been paying attention, and it became a war of the words the next two days.
"Not real surprising that he's complaining about something," Woods said.
"At least I'm true to myself," Garcia retorted. "I know what I'm doing, and he can do whatever he wants."
When they finished the storm-delayed third round on Sunday morning, Garcia kept at it, saying that Woods is "not the nicest guy on tour."
Woods had the last laugh. He had the trophy.
Garcia, when asked if he would have changed anything about the flap with Woods, replied, "It sounds like I was the bad guy here. I was the victim. I don't have any regrets of anything."
Woods notched his fourth PGA Tour title of the year, and it's the earliest in a single season he has ever won a fourth title.
"Each year I'm trying to get better," Woods said. "So far this year, I'm off to a pretty good start."
His 78th tour win came in his 300th start - he also won in his 100th and 200th starts.
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