Woods takes Firestone again,
says officials cost Harrington
AKRON, Ohio – Take the goods the gods provide, the ancient wisdom counsels, and Tiger Woods rejoices. The gods offer much, and he accepts, especially at his favorite playground, Firestone South. One time they provided him with the gift of radar, the better to stiff an 8-iron at the final hole in near darkness. Another, it was a generous and saving drop from the deep rough at the 16th hole. Another, a clubhouse miraculously not out of bounds, not even for a shot over it and into the pieman’s cart on the other side. And this time – this time they provided Padraig Harrington. Served him up, in fact, like a fatted calf. This time, it was the clock.
Woods said so himself, that being “on the clock” -- timed for slow play and possibly getting penalized – forced Harrington to rush his shots at the 16th, cost him a killing triple bogey-8, and pretty much cost him the tournament. Woods did not play it with hearts and flowers for the rules officials.
“I don’t know if you guys know it or not,” Woods said before the media, “but we got put on the clock. I don’t think Paddy would have hit the pitch shot that way if he was able to take his time, look at it, analyze it. But he was on the clock, had to get up there quickly and hit it – yeah, and hit it the water.”
Harrington had mentioned it, but he didn’t dwell on it. Woods dwelled.
Until the 16th, it was a heroic battle. Harrington didn’t fold, as he was supposed to. He had opened the final round with a three-stroke lead on Woods. And Woods, who owns Firestone and the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational, slugged him with a 5-under-par 30 – an eagle and three birdies -- on the front nine, and he never buckled. Harrington slugged away in pars and was two behind going through the turn.
Harrington finally got a birdie, at the 11th, and he was back into a one-stroke lead when Woods bogeyed the 13th and 14th. And that’s where he was, coming to the 16th, playing this day at 623 yards, twisting down the hill and offering a pond in front of the green for the over-bold.
Lee Trevino once made 9 at the 16th with a wedge in his hand, and Ben Crenshaw an 11, also with a wedge in his hands, and Arnold Palmer an 8, with a ball in the ditch, and that pretty much knocked him out of the 1960 PGA Championship. The only time Harrington touched the fairway was with a penalty drop, and that was for hitting the water after he had already crossed it. The Irish must have a word or two for such a thing.
It went this way: Harrington hit his drive into the right rough, his second across the fairway into the left rough, his third from an awkward uphill lie across the green and into the rough on the downslope behind.
(Woods added to the pressure, nearly stuffing his third. He had a tap-in birdie left.)
Harrington, scrambling to beat the clock, tried to hit a flop shot to the green from off that slope, leaning down to the left. The ball hit the green and bounced into the water. He went around the water, took his penalty drop, flipped a wedge shot on and two-putted from almost 40 feet. Your basic 8, and end of tournament for him. He closed with a 72, tying with Robert Allenby at 8-under 272, and Woods shot his second straight 65 for a 268, winning by four, and then, as someone noted, threw European Tour rules official John Paramor, under the bus.
“I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle,” Woods said. “I don’t understand why we got put on the clock.”
Woods and Harrington were the final twosome and were warned a couple of times about being out of position. It didn’t matter that they weren’t holding up play.
PGA Tour rules official Slugger White had an explanation. “We would be criticized if that group was two holes behind and finishing at 10 after 6,” he said. “We’re doing our job.”
It was a TV thing?
“Of course …” White said. “We’re trying to hit television. We’re trying to finish at 6 o’clock.”
Harrington never complained, never blamed the officials, but he did hint that he felt pressure from the timing down the 16th.
“I rushed my second shot, and didn’t hit a good shot and left myself in trouble,” he said. “Again, I had an awkward fourth shot. I had to go after it and probably rushed that a bit, as well [the watered shot]. That was the end of that.”
As to Woods’ great third shot stiff to the 16th?
“That didn’t affect me at all,” Harrington said. “I was one shot ahead. The shot that cost me was my second shot … not the toughest shot in the world, and I knocked it out of position.”
And off the attempted flop shot from behind the green:
“There was no other choice off a downslope,” he said. “You’ve got to swing out and hit it. I certainly wasn’t going to back off. I could have chipped sideways and made sure of making 6. But no – that was my chance to win the tournament. That’s my nature. I just hit the shot poorly.”
So once again, it was the Tiger Woods No-Guest at Firestone – his seventh win in 10 starts, his fourth straight, but his first by the clock.
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