Right before the turn
After falling behind by three after his bogey on the fifth hole, Woods made par on the sixth and got a huge lift on the par-4 seventh. First by sticking his approach to nearly tap-in range for a birdie, then seeing his children for the first time as he headed to the eighth tee. He kept his momentum going with a birdie on the eighth and then faced the toughest putt of the final round – a 65-footer from the top tier on the ninth hole to a pin on the lower tier. Woods navigated the dangerous, slippery expanse to tap-in range, which led to mini-fist pumps as he walked to the cup to complete his par. Then the back nine awaited.
LaCava: The seventh hole was big on Saturday and Sunday. Especially when you have tap-ins both times, a 9-iron on Saturday and a wedge on Sunday. That birdie on Sunday was big. You’ve got to have it. You bogey 4 and 5. Seven is a hole he’s played well over the years. But bigger was making birdie on 8. We got a break. We’re right of the (fairway) bunker there. (Molinari’s) in the bunker and he’s got a layup. Molinari has a wedge in there and makes a 15-footer in front of us. Tiger has an uphill putt with a double-break and pours it right in the middle. The ninth was huge. He hits it way back to that top shelf. Way back left, the third tier. All the way back there. The pin is front-left. And the funny thing is when we finished up on Wednesday with JT (Justin Thomas) and Fred (Couples), Tiger dropped a ball and they had a little closest to (the pin contest). He dropped the ball a foot from where he hit it on Sunday. And the pin was a foot from where it was on Sunday. Now listen, I don’t think that’s ever an easy two-putt. But it’s certainly easier on Wednesday with nothing on the line than Sunday. I think it helped a little bit. He had a good look at it Wednesday believe it or not. You drop 10 balls there, you’re going to hit two that close. You’ll leave one up top. You might hit one off the green. You’re going to three-putt three times. And for him to hit it to like a tap-in was huge.
Woods: That putt, unfortunately, I’ve had it – fortunately and unfortunately – I’ve had that putt before. I have left it on the middle shelf, and so that’s obviously not where you want to be. But also, it’s very easy to putt the ball over the green, or actually down the front edge of the green. The good thing that I had going for me was at that time, the wind was a little bit into me, so I had a little bit of a backboard with that wind being slightly into me. But it’s being committed to hitting that ball up there into that fringe, or near the fringe. Only problem is if you get it too far right, actually, it gets a little steeper and picks up a lot of speed. The conservative approach is to play it a little bit left of the hole and you know you take your 10-, 15-footer and move on with a four or five. But I decided to take a little bit more of a risk knowing that I had a little bit of a backboard with the wind.