|
 |   |
EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP |  |
There's something about No. 17
By John L. Byrwa, CNNSI.com LOUISVILLE - There's something about Mary, but there's really something about Tiger Woods and the 17th hole at the PGA Championship. Once again, golf's Golden Child found good fortune at the 17th, this time not once, but twice in the final round of the 82nd PGA Championship en route to winning his third major of 2000. A year ago at Medinah Country Club, you may recall, Woods made an all-world up-and-down on the 17th to hold back Sergio Garcia and win his second career major. Coming off a bogey at No. 16 to let Garcia within a shot of the lead, Woods hit his tee shot at the par-3 into the gnarly rough on the left. He chipped from a poor lie to within 8 feet, drained the tricky putt and went on to a one-shot win. With the tournament on the line Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club, Woods, who ultimately defeated Bob May in a three-hole playoff for his fifth major, once again made like a cat burglar and stole crucial shots from par on No. 17. The uphill 17th at Valhalla is 422 yards long and, like all holes here, demands a drive in the fairway. Unfortunately for Woods, he failed to find the short grass in either of the first three rounds, playing them in even par after a birdie, a par and a bogey. But Sunday, trailing May by one shot, Woods blasted a 335-yard drive over the bunker on the left and in the center of the fairway. Left with only 96 yards to the green, Woods knocked a sand wedge over the bunker guarding the green, stopping the ball just 2 feet from the hole. The birdie pulled Woods into a tie for the lead. But it was in the playoff that Woods really pulled his hand out of the cookie jar before the lid slammed shut. Owning a one-shot lead after birdieing 16, Woods pushed his tee shot far right and down an embankment, his ball coming to rest near the cart path. "I saw the gap [in the trees], and as soon as Stevie [Williams, his caddie] told me the number that I had -- I only had 108 yards to the front edge [of the green] - I knew I was going to keep that 8-iron down that long," Woods said. "I tried to actually play the ball short-right of the green so I could pick up the entire green, and I don't know where the ball carried because I couldn't see that far up, but it didn't hold the green and ended up in the worst place to put it." That spot being behind the green in a close-cut collection area, behind a huge mound. That wasn't all Woods faced. "On top of that, I ended up being right next to a drain," Woods said. "So I had to skirt the drain. When I read it, I thought I had to hit it extra hard because it could catch the side of the drain and kick it left. If it catches that drain, it could catch the grain and then kick it left to right." Instead, Woods judged the drain and the grain perfectly, his putt bounding over the mound and settling within 6 feet of the hole. Of course, he made the putt. And then took comfort in another joyous moment at the 17th hole at the PGA Championship. "To step up there and hit it and actually judge it correctly and know the grain might catch it, kick it back instead of going against the grain, felt pretty good," Woods said.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
