|
|
|
|
WORLD GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS
| Rare mental error ends streak for Woods  PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents MARANA, Ariz. -- For all the errant shots, the ones that landed in the water and lodged behind a cactus and scooted into the brush, Tiger Woods was undone by a rare mental error on Friday.  A few loose swings got Tiger Woods in trouble Friday at The Gallery. (Chris Condon/PGA Tour/WireImage)
Standing over a 4-foot putt on the first extra hole to win his match with Nick O'Hern, Woods didn't see the ball mark in its path. Had he seen the blemish, which was "totally" fixable, Woods said, and repaired it, the ball might not have veered right of the hole. Suddenly O'Hern had another chance to beat the world's No. 1 player for the second time at the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship -- and this time he took advantage. The Aussie, who had dispatched Woods in the second round in 2005, completed the upset with a clutch par at the 20th hole. "I was so enthralled with the line and where I had to start it," Woods said, shaking his head ever so slightly. "I wasn't even looking. I was just looking at my line. I knew if I hit it inside, left center, the match is over. That's my fault for not paying attention." O'Hern was standing beside the green, arms folded, and didn't see the ball mark or the putt. To be honest, the Aussie admitted, he was just awaiting the "sound of the ball going into the hole. "My caddy gave me another ball and said, 'Okay, next hole,'" O'Hern recalled. "I said, 'Mate, he doesn't miss these.' It happens. Then it was just time to regroup and put a good swing on the next tee shot." The upset ended Woods' most recent attempt to break the legendary Byron Nelson's streak of 11 victories in a row. Woods had won seven straight PGA TOUR events dating back to the British Open last year. He had a stretch of six consecutive wins earlier in his career. While Woods said he was proud of the way he'd performed over the last eight months, he was clearly peeved by his mental lapse on Thursday. "Well, it's not the streak (ending)," Woods said. "It's the fact that I'm disappointed I didn't pay attention to detail, something so simple. I got so enthralled and so focused like I normally do on the line, and ... something so simple like that just escaped me." Truth be told, though, Woods simply didn't play well on Thursday. He matched O'Hern's birdie on the first hole and then played his next five holes amid the desert flora in 5 over. Woods made two double bogeys during that stretch that allowed O'Hern to win the holes with bogeys. The Aussie was 4 up after seven holes, as a result. "It was a struggle," Woods admitted. "I just didn't have control of my golf swing. I had a two way miss going today. I hit it right because I was hitting it left, and it's one of those things where if you can hit it right or left you can play for it -- but I had a combo thing going today."
Still, Woods began to mount the spirited challenge that everyone in the partisan crowd expected when he rolled in a 16-footer for birdie on the par-3 eighth. He clinched his fist and had a spring in his step for the first time all day. "I was struggling, and I just said, just give myself looks at putts," Woods said. "That's all I can do because I know I was putting really well today. ... So just gave myself plenty of looks and I just felt like I was going to make them. "But could I give myself the looks was the question. Starting out, no. But I kept telling myself, at least it's downwind and my two way miss won't go too far off line dead downwind." Just as he'd hoped, a stretch of three straight birdies that began at the 10th hole narrowed the deficit to 1 down. Woods squared the match at No. 15 when O'Hern conceded his 10-footer after the Aussie saw his own chip roll back off the green. "I think my mother could two-putt from there," O'Hern said, smiling. O'Hern birdied the 17th hole but Woods responded with a 5-footer of his own on the 18th to send the match to extra holes. The comeback, and the birdie at No. 18 that punctuated the rally, hardly surprised O'Hern. "I knew it was going to happen," O'Hern said. "Tiger is No. 1 in the world for a reason, and he's not going to play poor golf for any extended period of time. The good thing was I just told myself I've been in this situation before and I know how to handle it, and it's a matter of how you handle it (that) is the most important thing. "When he's coming at you like that, you can lose your focus and play poor golf, but I still played nice, solid golf. As I said, I forced him to make a lot of birdies, which he did. "It was a heck of a match in the end." |
Headlines |
