And so he did, shooting a 3-under-par 69 to finish in a six-way tie for 11th place, seven shots behind victor Webb Simpson.
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1 Dustin Johnson (72) finishing T-17, Thomas also became the new World No. 1.
“He’ll win sometime soon enough”, said Spieth, who tied for 41st after a final-round 74 that included an 8 at the last hole. “I felt like I had control of it today”.
Having won 14 major championships and 79 PGA Tour events in his career, Woods is not much concerned with where he is in the various rankings.
“To be honest with you guys, I’ve never putted this well in my life”, Simpson said. He finally settled on a longer handle that ran up the left side of his arm, and then Tim Clark gave him the missing link. And, yes, there are a lot of very good players around in the game at the moment, so winning again is way more hard for Woods than it once was.
On how tough the final day was, he added, “It was hard”.
I think his faith had a lot to do with him getting through his down times and boy did he play beautifully this week. Yet that didn’t stop him from signing autographs for a big group of kids afterwards and, along with many others at the moment, including a Woods who actually looks as though he’s enjoying himself, golf really can be thankful to have such a terrific ambassador as the young Texan.
Woods’ last PGA Tour win came at the WGC-Bridgestone in 2013, when he beat Keegan Bradley and Henrik Stenson by seven shots. Simpson spoke about his play on the greens after the anchor ban. Once it was announced last week he was going to play, the thoughts of him returning to the winners’ circle started to come. “Obviously it wasn’t happening really through eight holes but then I made six on the spin, which is fun”.
Danny Lee was leading the B-Flight with a bogey-free round of 70, but with birdies only on the two par 5s on the back nine.
Simpson ended up with the trophy, which was about as surprising as someone hitting into the murky lagoon at the island green. Unfortunately one of the players made the cut.
Woods turned in four-under 30. Perhaps he would even attack Greg Norman’s tournament record of 24-under-par.
Day mixed two early birdies with a holed bunker shot for eagle at the ninth, but his surge fizzled with an even par back nine. But he didn’t, and Simpson regrouped with a birdie on 11 and a bunch of pars down the stretch.
Thomas is the 21st player to hold the top spot since the rankings began in 1986, and at 25 the fourth youngest behind Woods, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.
It didn’t click right away, but Simpson noticed a difference. With a front pin in the bowl, he hit sand wedge and listened to thousands of fans surrounding the green cheer as the ball trickled down the slope to 3 feet for birdie.
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Except for his play on the par-4 14th, one of the toughest holes on the testing course, and dunking one into the water on the par-3 17th, Woods, 42, was thrilled with his work, thankful for getting into the heat of contention and confident heading forward.
