Tiger returns to winning at Bay Hill

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-30 11:36

Tiger Woods (R) hugs his caddie Steve Williams after he made a long putt on the 18th green to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational PGA golf tournament at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida, March 29, 2009. [Agencies]

O'Hair narrowly missed, and Woods holed his putt for par. On the next hole, Woods made a 25-foot birdie putt to tie for the lead.

There were three lead changes over the final three holes, and a predictable winner.

"It's like Stevie was saying out there," Woods said of caddie Steve Williams. "This feels like we hadn't left. You just remember how to do it. It hasn't been that long for me, but you just have that feel of what to do. And it's a matter of getting it done."

It was a struggle from the start for O'Hair.

He didn't hit a fairway until the sixth hole, and he didn't have a birdie putt inside 30 feet until the ninth hole. The game was on after a two-shot swing on the third hole, when O'Hair missed the green to the right and made bogey, and Woods made an 8-footer for his second straight birdie to close within two shots.

Woods pulled to within one shot on the par-3 seventh. Standing over the ball with a 7-iron, he backed away when he felt the wind shift ever so slightly, switched to a 6-iron and hit it to 6 feet for a birdie. O'Hair, well left of the flag, three-putted for bogey.

They were separated by one shot for most of the back nine, with momentum seemingly on Woods' side, but not the lead. That didn't come until the 16th hole, and then he needed one more clutch shot to return to a familiar place.

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