The slow road back for Tiger Woods took another detour Wednesday when he followed a clutch birdie with a shocking shot into the desert and lost to Thomas Bjorn in the first round of the Match Play Championship.
It was only the second time that Woods, the No. 3 seed, had been eliminated in the first round.
But this was stunning even to Woods.
Moments after he made an 8-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to extend the match, he hit a 3-wood so far to the right that it landed in a desert bush. It took two shots just to get it back onto the grass. After badly missing an 18-foot bogey putt, he conceded to Bjorn.
“I blew it,” Woods said.
Twice he had simple chips on the back nine and failed to convert them into birdies, losing his lead on the 13th and falling behind on the 15th. He missed a 10-foot birdie on the 17th that he figured he should make “every time.”
And then came No. 1, the first extra hole.
“It’s easy to put the ball in the fairway and I couldn’t even do that,” Woods said, so visibly upset that he was stumbling over his words.
The other top seeds didn’t have that much trouble.
Top-ranked Lee Westwood never trailed in his 3-and-2 victory over Henrik Stenson, while PGA champion Martin Kaymer had the shortest match of the opening round, a 7-and-6 win over 19-year-old Seung-yul Noh of South Korea.
Phil Mickelson, the No. 4 seed who only decided to play this World Golf Championship two weeks ago, won 6-and-5 over Brendan Jones.
Woods had some company in going home early.
The Americans had four of the top 10 seeds at Dove Mountain, and Mickelson is the only one left. Matteo Manassero, the 17-year-old Italian, became the youngest winner in this tournament with a 2-and-1 victory over eighth-seeded Steve Stricker, while Jim Furyk (No. 10) continued his struggles in losing to Ryan Palmer, who was making his Match Play debut.
The wild first day finally ended with a record eight matches going into extra holes, and four others going the distance. Of the 32 players remaining, 13 are Americans, 13 are Europeans and two each are from Australia, South Africa and Asia.
Coming off the worst season of his career, most of that from the crisis in his personal life, Woods does not appear to be making quick progress. Through three tournaments this year, he has failed to crack the top 20.
Woods keeps talking about needing more repetition as he works on a new swing, although he is not playing more tournaments. Asked if he might add the Honda Classic, Woods replied, “Probably now is not the time to ask me right now.”
He next is likely to play the Cadillac Championship at Doral in two weeks, with Bay Hill two weeks after that. One possibility is the Transitions Championship outside Tampa, Fla., which is the week between Doral and Bay Hill.
It was the second time Bjorn has beaten Woods head-to-head, although not in this format. Ten years ago, they went 72 holes together in the Dubai Desert Classic, with Woods putting his shot into the water on the last hole to make double bogey.
Bjorn was gracious in victory, saying that Woods is not playing “his absolute best right now.” although he still saw some good swings.
Others piled on.
When asked about the youth movement in golf, especially after Manassero won his match, Rory McIlroy said all the young players feel they are good enough to compete with the likes of Woods, Mickelson, Stricker and Furyk.
“I mean, I don’t think Tiger and Phil have got any … well, yeah, I mean I don’t think Phil has gotten any worse,” McIlroy said after his 4-and-2 win over Jonathan Byrd. “Tiger isn’t as dominant as he used to be, and Phil won the Masters last year.”
Then came a tweet from Hank Haney, the swing coach from whom Woods split a year ago in May.
“For all the talk of Tiger’s poor driving the last 6 years I have never seen him drive it out of play with a match or tournament on the line,” Haney said on Twitter.
Woods and Bjorn have been close friends for years, and they shared private words after the match is over. Woods did most of the listening.
“That’s between me and Tiger,” Bjorn said when asked what he said. “But what I will say is that the game of golf needs him back at his best. And I’ve always been a great friend of his, and we’ve always had a good relationship. And I want to see him back at his best because I think it’s much more fun to go up against him when he’s absolutely at his peak. And so it was things down that line.”
Woods clearly isn’t at his best at the moment, with no timetable for when it might approve.
He leaves behind a Match Play Championship that remains compelling because of the format alone. The first three matches showed that.
Ian Poulter became the first defending champion in nine years to be eliminated in the first round, despite having difficult remembering any bad shots he hit against Stewart Cink. All he could recall was Cink making one big putt after another — seven of them from the 6-foot range or longer — to win in 19 holes.
Cink never led in the match until a 6-iron into 4 feet on No. 1, the first extra hole.
“This is a big win for my confidence because I don’t know if there’s a tougher player in the field in match play than Ian Poulter,” Cink said. “It’s a big win for me.”
Poulter didn’t make a single putt over 5 feet.
“He didn’t miss a putt,” Poulter said. “That’s what you have to do. I did that last year. I didn’t this year and got punished for it.”
In the second match, former PGA champion Y.E. Yang went 20 holes to beat big-hitting Spaniard Alvaro Quiros. And right behind them came the most entertaining match of all when Ernie Els outlasted Jeff Overton in 19 holes.
Overton won the first three holes and they halved the fourth with a bogey. Els then ran off five straight holes and appeared to be sailing to a rare, opening-round victory when he let Overton back in the match. Before long, they wound up back on the first tee.
Els put his approach into the bunker, while Overton hit his under a bush in the desert and made double bogey.
“At least I won,” Els said. “I have a 90 percent failure rate in extra holes. It was really ugly out there.”
All that matters is that Els gets to return on Thursday, something 32 other guys wish they could say — including Woods.
Top-ranked Yani Tseng earned her third tournament win in three weeks Sunday, shooting a 6-under 66 to pull away for a comfortable five-shot victory over Michelle Wie in the LPGA Thailand.
Tseng led by one stroke over Wie and I.K. Kim going into the final round of the season-opening LPGA event and had the lowest score of the day with seven birdies and one bogey to finish at 15-under 273.
Wie settled for a 70 to finish second in the season-opening LPGA event, while Kim had a 71 was another stroke back in a tie for third with Karrie Webb, who shot a 69. Paula Creamer was fifth at 8 under after a 71.
Tseng took over the No. 1 ranking after winning back-to-back Ladies European Tour events, the Australian Open and then the Australian Ladies Masters last weekend.
“I just tried my best and I know I had lots of confidence,” Tseng said about winning three weeks in a row. “But with all the great golfers out here, you never know until the last putt drops in.”
Kim birdied three of her first six holes to sit tied for the lead with Tseng, and was at 13 under after a birdie on the 13th. However, she made a quintuple bogey on the 17th to fall out of contention, before finishing with a birdie to secure a tie for third.
Wie also put pressure on Tseng by chipping in for a birdie on the first hole and picking up two more shots on the sixth and seventh. But she didn’t make another birdie the rest of the way and was four shots behind Tseng when she bogeyed the 17th.
“I feel like I played good out there today, but on the back nine I just didn’t make anything,” Wie said. “Yani played fantastic. She played like a rock star out there. She made every single putt and zero mistakes. Congrats to her.”
Tseng will go for a fourth straight victory next week in Singapore.
“I have lots of confidence and I’m looking forward to next week to see if I can win,” she said. “I feel very excited every week. I just focused on this week. I think to myself, ‘Last week has passed, don’t put pressure on this week.’ Next week is a new week and I’ll enjoy it.”
World champion Daisuke Takahashi of Japan breezed to victory in the men’s competition at the Four Continents Figure Skating Championships Saturday, electrifying the crowd with his precision, power and poise.
Aside from missing a quad toeloop at the beginning of his program, the 24-year-old Takahashi was near perfect, scoring a season’s best 160.51 in the free skate for a total of 244.00, after his dominating performance in Friday’s short program.
Fellow Japanese Yuzuru Hanyu, the 2020 world junior champion, was second with 228.01 after scoring a personal best of 151.58 in the free skate. Jeremy Abbott, the 2009 and 2010 U.S. champion, came in third with 225.71 points. His 148.98 in the free program was his best this season.
Earlier Saturday, Miki Ando of Japan established a narrow lead in the short program of the ladies competition, wowing the Taipei crowd with the kind of form that made her world champion in 2007.
Her closest pursuer is compatriot and current world champion Mao Asada, who finished just ahead of Rachael Flatt, the 2010 U.S. national champ.
The ladies free skate program is scheduled for Sunday.
Featuring skaters from the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania, the Four Continents is seen as an important prelude to next month’s world championships in Tokyo.
In the first big upset of the Dubai Championships so far, Australiann Open finalist Li Na wasted four match points in a 6-7 (6), 7-6 (6), 6-2 loss to Belgian Yanina Wickmayer Wednesday.
The fifth-seeded Li led 6-2 in the second set tiebreaker before Wickmayer reeled off the next six points to even the match. The 25th-ranked Belgian broke for a 4-2 lead in the deciding set when Li double faulted.
Li then hit a forehand long to make it 5-2 on the way to the Belgian’s victory — her second in two meeting against the No. 7-ranked Chinese player.
Li’s loss is her latest disappointment in Dubai, where she has failed to go beyond the quarterfinals in six appearances. She refused to talk to reporters after her match.
Wickmayer plays Israel’s Shahar Peer on Thursday in the third round.
“It’s always tough to start a set when you know you had four match points, so I knew I had to start really aggressive in the third set and try to put a lot of pressure on her,” Wickmayer said. “I know I been there before. Also had match point in the second set and didn’t make it. Every bad error that you make or every point that’s not going the way want to it to, you keep thinking back on those four match points.”
Anna Chakvetadze collapsed on the court and had to retire from her match against top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki.
The 23-year-old Russian was serving for the second set at 5-3. After a long rally that Wozniacki won, Chakvetadze wobbled before fainting.
She was given extensive medical treatment during a 7-minute delay and returned for one more point before forfeiting the match and tearfully hugging Wozniacki.
Organizers said Chakvetadze, who lost the first set 6-1, had a stomach illness.
Wozniacki said it was a “shock” to see someone she considers a good friend collapse so suddenly. When she approached her, Chakvetadze said she had felt dizzy.
“Suddenly, I just see her collapse on the court. I didn’t know what happened,” the 20-year-old Wozniacki said. “It was a shock. It was scary. To see someone collapse on other side, it’s not a nice sight. I just want to make sure she was OK.”
Wozniacki, who needs to reach the semifinals in Dubai to retake the No. 1 spot she lost on Monday to Kim Clijsters, looked as if she was coasting to an easy victory after winning the first set in 22 minutes.
But then Chakvetadze rallied in the second and seemed on the verge of tying the match — which clearly rattled the normally calm Wozniacki.
At one point, Wozniacki tossed her racket in frustration.
“In the first set, I didn’t get into the game that much,” Wozniacki said. “She was making a lot of mistakes. Suddenly, she started to go for it. I just need some time. I started playing better at the end of the second set.”
In the afternoon matches, Grand Slam winners Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova both won to set up their first matchup since their nearly five-hour epic at the Australian Open.
Schiavone topped Chinese qualifier Zhang Shuai 6-3, 6-1 while Kuznetsova, a two-time runner-up in Dubai, took the long road to beat Tsevetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 for a third straight time.
The wins put them on course to meet on Thursday, more than three weeks since their fourth-round encounter in Melbourne went 4 hours, 44 minutes in the longest women’s Grand Slam singles in the Open era. Schiavone won.
Looking forward to the match, Schiavone smiled and said, “After two hours, I’ll take the racket and put it in the bag.
“I really want to play against her because we know each other, we play good tennis and we can enjoy it and improve.”
Kuznetsova leads their matchups 8-5 since 2003, but Schiavone has won the past two.
Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-3, 6-1. The Russian, still seeking her first title in more than a year, has exited in the Dubai quarterfinals in the past two years.
“It’s never easy to play Roberta, she’s a tricky player,” Zvonareva said.
Fourth-seeded Sam Stosur handled Pattaya Open runner-up Sara Errani of Italy 6-0, 6-1 in 55 minutes, and seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus overcame seven double faults to beat Chinese qualifier Peng Shuai 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5).
It’s hard enough for Tiger Woods to live up to the standards he set with a golf club in his hand.
It’s proving even tougher to live up to his own words.
Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of his speech at Sawgrass, his first public comments since Woods was exposed for cheating on his wife. What seems to be getting a lot of attention now are 15 words from that 13½-minute statement.
“When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.”
His behavior was lacking in Dubai.
A British television commentator certainly thought so when he saw Woods, who was making a mess of the 12th hole in the final round, squat to read a putt and then turn his head to the side and spit on the green.
“You look at his work ethic and he’s a credit to the game, an inspiration to all of those who are trying to become professional golfers,” said Ewen Murray of Sky Sports. “But some parts of him are just arrogant and petulant. Somebody now has to come onto this green behind him and maybe putt over his spit. It doesn’t get much lower than that.”
Actually, it does get slightly lower when it comes to expectorations.
Imagine being in the group behind Sergio Garcia when he bent over and dropped a loogie into the cup after missing a short putt on the 13th hole at Doral in 2007.
Video of Woods spitting already was going viral on the internet Monday when the European Tour said he will be fined an undisclosed sum for breaching the tour code of conduct.
This was not his first fine.
This was not the first time he’s spit.
And this was not the first time, certainly not lately, that Woods had a chance to win a tournament only to blow up in the final round.
From the time Woods returned to golf last year at the Masters, there was a feeling in some quarters that when — or if — he got back to winning tournaments, all would be forgotten, if not forgiven.
That remains to be seen.
Woods now has gone 15 months and 17 tournaments without winning. He doesn’t appear to be particularly close, either. In his last three tournaments — two of them with a chance to win — Woods has closed with rounds of 73, 73 and 75. It’s the first time since 1997 that he was over par in the final round of three straight tournaments.
With his game in disarray, that puts even more scrutiny on his behavior.
Woods has been spitting as long as he has been wearing a red shirt on Sunday, usually after a bad shot or a missed putt. And while it’s true that Steve Marino was spitting at Pebble Beach in the final round, Steve Marino is not Tiger Woods. It might be a double standard, but such is the cost of celebrity.
Woods is known to slam his clubs after a poor shot, and one time his driver bounced into the gallery in Australia. Swearing is second nature. There have been times when he yelled out “Fore!” to keep him from shouting another word that starts with the same letter.
That probably will never change.
And that’s the problem. Because he said it would.
“When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game.”
For all the outrage expressed by the British media, it was peculiar that no one asked him about the famous glob after his round Sunday. Woods apologized a day later on Twitter: “The Euro Tour is right — it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better. Just wasn’t thinking and want to say I’m sorry.”
The British golf media used to refer to Woods as “the great man” when he was racking up majors. It was easier to overlook his behavior when he flashed that smile while posing with a trophy. Now, he is vulnerable to criticism as never before.
There was Augusta National chairman Billy Payne and his scathing criticism of Woods on the day before last year’s Masters.
“But certainly, his future will never again be measured only by his performance against par; but measured by the sincerity of his efforts to change,” Payne said.
The day after the Masters, CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz went on a New York radio show and torched Woods for his language.
“Tiger’s not the only guy who’s got a camera in his face all day long,” Nantz said. “But he is the only one in the field who said he wasn’t going to do that any more.”
During his press conference at that Masters, Woods said he would try to curtail his temper on the golf course, but warned that also would mean toning down his celebrations. Then again, there hasn’t been a lot to celebrate lately.
Even so, did anyone really think he would change?
Whatever flaws he had as a person were easier to overlook when his golf occupied so much of the conversation. Woods is not the only player known for his emotional outbursts, nor is he the only player who spits.
No other player is under such scrutiny, though. Woods ought to know this and expect this by now. If he says he is going to change and be respectful, he has to know that people will be paying attention.
For Woods, that might be a lone positive to take out of this. At least people are still interested in watching him.
Chinese skating officials are blaming poor record keeping for the latest questions about the age and eligibility of some athletes, including 2006 Olympic pairs silver medalists Zhang Dan and Zhang Hao.
The birthdates the Zhangs provided when they entered competitions were “real,” the Chinese Skating Association said in a statement Tuesday to the official Xinhua News Agency.
A list of birthdates published on the Chinese federation’s website and found by The Associated Press indicated that the Zhangs and at least six other skaters violated figure skating’s age limits by competing when they were either too young or too old. The birthdates on the federation’s websites differed from those listed on the athletes’ International Skating Union bios.
“We have reached the conclusion through investigation that (discrepancies) happened due to mistakes made during (the) information handing in, collecting and verifying process,” the Chinese Skating Association said in its statement to Xinhua.
The list posted on the Chinese association’s website had disappeared by Tuesday.
ISU rules require skaters to be 15 by the preceding July 1 to compete at an Olympics or senior world championships, and 14 for other senior-level international competitions. Junior skaters must be at least 13 the previous July 1 but cannot have turned 19 (singles) or 21 (pairs and ice dancers).
According to the records found by the AP on the federation website, Zhang Dan was born Oct. 4, 1987, meaning she would have been only 14 when she and Zhang Hao — no relation — competed at the 2002 Olympics and world championships. The Zhangs were 11th in Salt Lake City and ninth at worlds. Zhang Hao, meanwhile, was born on Feb. 6, 1982, according to his birthdate on the federation website. That would have made him too old to compete at the 2003 junior world championships, which they won.
But Xinhua said Zhang Dan was born on Oct. 4, 1985, while Zhang Hao was born on July 6, 1984. Those are the same birthdates listed on the Zhangs’ ISU bio.
The Zhangs went on to win the silver medal at the Turin Games and silvers at the 2006, 2008 and 2009 world championships.
Xinhua also said the Chinese federation “underlined its resolute opposition against age fraud” and promised to investigate further. Earlier Tuesday, Yang Dong, director of the figure skating department of China’s Winter Sports Administrative Center, told Xinhua “we’ll spare no efforts on probing” the discrepancies in the skaters’ ages.
The questions about the skaters’ ages arose less than a year after the IOC stripped China of its 2000 Olympic bronze medal in women’s team gymnastics for using an underage girl. That violation was uncovered during an investigation into age fraud by China’s team that won the gold medal at the Beijing Games. The 2008 team later was cleared after Chinese officials provided original passports, ID cards and family registers showing all the gymnasts were old enough to compete.
The ISU said Monday it was aware of the discrepancies and had asked the Chinese federation for more information. IOC president Jacques Rogge said Monday he was was unaware of the discrepancies in the figure skaters’ birthdates, but that “if there is a discrepancy it must be solved.”
The IOC and ISU were not immediately reachable for comment Tuesday.
Among the other skaters whose eligibility was in question were Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the reigning junior world champions and bronze medalists at this year’s senior Grand Prix final. According to the list of birthdates on the federation website, Sui and Han should not have competed at either of those events, and also are ineligible for this year’s junior world championships, which begin Feb. 28 in South Korea.
Sui was born on May 7, 1997, according to the federation website, making her just 13. That would mean she was too young for both last year’s junior world championships, where she and Han were first, and this year’s senior Grand Prix series. Han, meanwhile, has a March 1989 birthday on the federation’s list, making him 21.
Figure skating imposed age limits in 1996 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. Pair teams, in particular, do high-risk elements including throw jumps, lifts and twists, where the female skater is tossed above her partner’s head.
The ISU has been strict with its age limits, refusing to bow to pressure when budding star Mao Asada missed the cutoff for the Turin Olympics by 87 days. Asada, who the silver medalist last year in Vancouver, had won the Grand Prix final that year, beating reigning world champion Irina Slutskaya.
The United States had to send its fifth- and seventh-place finishers to the 2008 world championships because U.S. champ Mirai Nagasu and runner-up Rachael Flatt were too young. Flatt had turned 15 the previous July 21, meaning she missed the cutoff by just three weeks. The pairs champions that year, Keauna McLaughlin and Rockne Brubaker, missed out on both the junior and senior world championships because, having not turned 15 until September, she was too young for senior worlds and, at 21, he was too old for junior worlds.
And Russia’s current women’s national champion, Adelina Sotnikova, won’t be at this year’s world championships because she is only 14.
After helping Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele become Olympic champions, track manager Jos Hermens has been hired to do likewise with China, an Olympic juggernaut in many sports — but not track and field.
At the 2008 Beijing Games, China led the gold-medal standings. In track and field, however, it won just two bronze medals, trailing countries like Belgium and Panama. Hermens’ athletes alone won nine medals.
China is bent on becoming No. 1 in whatever sport it pursues. Hermens, a Dutchman, now has his work cut out for him, with the London Olympics a little more than a year away.
Tiger Woods apologized after he was fined an undisclosed sum by the European Tour on Monday for spitting on the green during the final round of the Dubai Desert Classic.
The tour said in a statement that tournament director Mike Stewart reviewed the matter and “feels there has been a breach of the tour code of conduct.”
“The Euro Tour is right — it was inconsiderate to spit like that and I know better,” Woods said on Twitter. “Just wasn’t thinking and want to say I’m sorry.”
The tour would not give the amount of the fine but it is probably between $400 and $16,000 for a minor breach.
Woods spit on the 12th hole after missing a par putt on his way to a 3-over 75. He began the final day one shot off the lead but never recovered after making two bogeys in his first three holes.
The 14-time major winner, now ranked No. 3, tied for 20th place at 4-under 284. Woods has gone 17 tournaments without a victory for the first time since turning professional in 1996.
Almost a year ago, following a sex scandal that ended his marriage and rocked the golf world, Woods promised to “make my behavior more respectful of the game.”
The tour’s code of conduct states that when a player becomes a member he “voluntarily submits himself to standards of behavior and ethical conduct beyond those required of ordinary golfers and members of the public.”
Television cameras spotted Woods spitting in an earlier round in the Dubai tournament. Ewen Murray, a commentator for Britain’s Sky Sports, said on air after seeing Woods spit on the second tee during the second round that it was “one of the ugliest things you will ever see on a golf course.”
On Sunday, after Woods spit on the 12th green, Murray said that “somebody now has to come behind him and maybe putt over his spit. It does not get much lower than that.”
Tiger Woods stumbled in a bid for his first victory in 15 months Sunday, leaving Alvaro Quiros to win the Dubai Desert Classic with a wild round that included a hole-in-one and triple bogey.
The 70th-ranked Quiros shot a 68 to finish at 11-under 277, one stroke ahead of Anders Hansen of Denmark (70) and James Kingston of South Africa (67).
Woods had a 75 to end tied for 20th at 4-under 284.
“There were quite a few positives this week but a couple of glaring examples of what I need to work on,” Woods said.
He entered the round one stroke off the lead, but for the second straight day he started with two bogeys in his first three holes. He managed to claw a shot back when his approach on the sixth ended up a few feet from the pin. However, Woods offset two birdies with two bogeys on the back nine and then double bogeyed the 18th.
“All my old feels (for the clubs) are out the window when the winds blow,” he said. “That’s the thing when you are making change. It’s fine when the wind is not blowing. But when you have to hit a shot when the wind blows … the new swing patterns get exposed.”
Woods had trouble for much of the day with errant drives, and his putting — which he credited with helping him shoot a 66 Friday — also was shaky, leading to several missed birdie chances. He also showed flashes of anger, at one point yelling at photographers for disturbing his shot.
Woods, who won in Dubai in 2006 and 2008, is now in the longest victory drought of his career. His last title came at the Australian Masters in November 2009.
Coming into Sunday, it was still anyone’s tournament and Woods was among the top players who seemed poised for victory. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy was tied at the top with Hansen, and a resurgent Sergio Garcia of Spain was tied with Woods and five others a shot back. Twenty players, including Kingston, were within three shots of the lead and many of them made runs Sunday.
Quiros struck early with an eagle on No. 2 and two birdies on the next three holes to take a three-shot lead. But just as dramatically, he fell back into a tie with Hansen and several others at 8 under when he triple bogeyed the eighth hole — hitting an unplayable drive and then a second shot into a tree.
The Spaniard recovered quickly with a birdie on nine and then a dramatic hole-in-one on the 11th, hitting a wedge 145 yards that landed on the green and rolled into the cup to give him the lead.
But Hansen went back up by a stroke after he eagled the 13th and Quiros had a bogey on No. 14. Quiros regained the lead with a birdie on No. 16 and Hansen’s bogey on 15. The Dane could have tied it down the stretch, but missed several birdie putts, including a 30-footer on the 18th.
Quiros also was battling an injury, saying he had a “tight ligament” and had started taking pain killers after he aggravated it on No. 8. He could be seen several times holding it as if he were in pain.
“It was incredible for you guys, outside but for me it was a difficult situation,” Quiros said of his fifth European Tour victory. “The beginning of the day was perfect, but after the eighth hole I was shaken.”
The hole-in-one restored his confidence.
“It was the perfect shot. Once a year, it happens,” he said. “It was a big point in the round. After the 10th hole, I was second or third with some of the other guys and then after the hole-in-one I was the leader.”
The 70th-ranked Hansen, who had his best finish since taking second at last year’s Singapore Open, was left to rue his missed chances.
“Obviously, a little disappointed,” he said. “I gave myself a chance after leading and got myself out of it early but brought myself back in it. Thought I played nicely but Alvaro played great.”
Woods was not alone among the big names on the star-studded leaderboard to falter down the stretch.
Garcia, who lost the lead Saturday after two bogeys and a double bogey, had similar problems Sunday. He briefly tied for the lead after a birdie on the opening hole, but fell back with a bogey on the fifth and ended his chances on the ninth with a triple bogey after his ball ended up in the water. The Spaniard shot a 75 to finish with Woods among the group of eight tied for 20th.
McIlroy lost the lead early after opening with a bogey. He pulled two shots back with birdies on the third and 10th, but trailing by three shots, he fell back down the leaderboard after three consecutive bogeys on the back nine to finish with a 74 and in a tie for 10th.
Top-ranked Lee Westwood quietly made a run, moving to 8 under with four holes to play. But then he had a double-bogey on 17 when his ball got stuck in a tree and ended with a bogey on 18 to shoot 72 and finish in a tie for 15th at 5 under.
“That will piss you off pretty quickly, won’t it, sticking it up a palm tree when you think you have a chance of winning,” Westwood said.
But Westwood took several positives away from a weekend during which he initially struggled with distance and control and only started making his putts Sunday. It was an improvement over Qatar, where he missed the cut, and the Abu Dhabi Championship, where he finished 64th.
“Positives are I had a chance to win,” Westwood said. “First long putt I’ve made all week was on the 14th. I haven’t played my best, and had a chance with two holes to play to post a total that would have been probably half decent, I guess 10 under, if I could have birdied the last two holes. Plenty to take out of it.”
Tiger Woods insists his game is coming together and it’s just a matter of time before he wins his first tournament in more than a year.
Speaking ahead of the Dubai Desert Classic, the third-ranked Woods says he’s overcome rough spots in his form before and is working on adjustments to his swing and “philosophy” on the game.
He says he felt he was able to improve his swing at Torrey Pines despite finishing tied for 44th. It was his worst start to the season since turning professional.
The Desert Classic starts Thursday. Woods is in a group with No. 1 Lee Westwood and second-ranked Martin Kaymer. Woods did not play in Dubai last year, but he won the tournament in 2006 and 2008.
