THOUSAND OAKS — There was a Hollywood ending to the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge, but the leading man wasn't the last man standing.
Still, it was a thriller you couldn’t stop watching on Sunday.
Sherwood Country Club delivered one of the most memorable finishes in history, which was a fitting way to end the 15-year run of the event Tiger Woods hosts. Woods is moving the tournament to Florida, despite it being a successsful endeavor here.
Goodbye, Tiger Woods. It was nice knowing you.
Woods seemed a virtual lock to win the 18-player event with a two-shot lead after the third round and four-shot lead with eight holes to play, but Zach Johnson made this finale a doozy. Johnson holed out from the drop area on No. 18 after he hit into the hazard — in front of thousands of fans packed around the green — to help force a playoff, then he won on the first playoff hole after Woods missed a 5-foot putt.
The record crowd of 24,922 was stunned.
“It was a great week for us,” Woods said. “This is our last year, and to have it come down to what it did at the very end, it was pretty exciting as a player. And I’m sure as a spectator. All the people that were here, I’m sure they were pretty entertained.”
Most obviously wanted Woods — the world’s top-ranked player and man who brought the tournament here in 2000 — to win, but they sure were treated to a dandy. They also got sunny weather after rain a day earlier, but they had to brace awful traffic, including all those fans who came, and chilly temperatures and a deep gallery around Woods.
The day started with Portero Road, the only road that leads to Sherwood, looking much like the 405 Freeway for hours. Fans were in a major traffic jam, and the main parking lot was full early. The exodus must have been more of the same.
It was worth the hassle.
“That ending, I don’t want to be over-dramatic, but what a great ending,” said Greg McLaughlin, the tournament director and CEO of the Tiger Woods Foundation. “If Tiger had won, that really would’ve been a stellar ending. But Zach is a great champion.”
On the playoff hole at the 18th, Woods was in the fairway, then the greenside bunker but got out to about 5 feet. After Johnson two-putted for par, Woods’ putt missed on the left edge of the cup.
Johnson didn’t mind playing the role of villain with all those fans.
“I like playing with him,” Johnson said of Woods. “He’s a friend. He seems to bring out the worst and best in you, you know? I love that. I’m going to learn from it, and I learn from him.”
What we’ve learned is Woods was quite the host. He won here five times and made what’s known as a silly-season event a must-see event.
The bummer for Southern Californians is that the days of watching Woods up-close and personal are over. Woods plays at Torrey Pines, but he hasn’t played at Riviera Country Club in six years.
After losing, he signed autographs for a couple of minutes, then did interviews and walked by hundreds of fans still waiting, into Sherwood and then back to Florida, where he’ll try to reinvent the tournament on the opposite coast.
At least we were left with a dramatic finish.
It was nice knowing you, Tiger Woods.
0 comments:
Post a Comment