Tiger pushed back
A wind of change came over St Andrews today – and it surprisingly blew Tiger Woods back to the chasing pack in the 134th Open championship.
What many thought would be a two-day stroll to victory from four clear at halfway turned into anything but as the world number one battled with the new-look Old Course.
The duel ended in a narrow victory for Woods, who salvaged a great par at the dangerous 17th and then birdied the driveable last for a 71 and 12-under-par total of 204.
But the fight for the claret jug is far from over. Jose Maria Olazabal – not even in the event 18 days ago – is 10 under and Colin Montgomerie’s closing 25-foot birdie putt means he and Retief Goosen will resume only three back in joint third place.
Woods remains favourite for what will be his 10th major, but any thought of emulating his eight-shot, record 19-under-par total at the home of golf in 2000 have been sidelined.
He will happily take victory with any score and however it comes.
Woods shocked the 40,000 crowd and millions watching on television around the globe by twice going in gorse on the front nine – and that after three-putting the second.
The advantage was reduced to one and even when he restored it to three it was not plain-sailing over the closing stretch.
Woods went through the green at both the 14th and 16th. He needed to get up and down for birdie at the former and par at the latter, but he did not manage it either time and at the 16th did well not to drop two strokes after leaving his putt well short.
That six-footer was important, but not as much as the 10-foot saving effort on the Road Hole 17th after he had failed to make it onto the green in regulation yet again.
He could easily have three-putted the last from where his drive finished - closer to the first tee than the flag – but he judged the pace and the line extraordinarily well and had the simplest of tap-ins to finish his day’s work.
Montgomerie, from slightly further away, never got his first attempt going really. But the second putt made up for that and brought one of the biggest cheers of the day.
Miss it and his dream of a first major title after more than 50 attempts would have looked over. Now there is still a glimmer of a chance and that should bring the fans back in even greater numbers.
Sergio Garcia and Brad Faxon are four back in joint fifth place at eight under and then come US Open champion Michael Campbell and world number two Vijay Singh are seven under.
For a leaderboard you could not ask for much more.
