Tiger Woods ended his day with a low fist pump that he held for an extra few seconds. He was savouring the birdie putt he sank at the 18th hole at Bay Hill Club and what it meant.
An impromptu lesson earlier this week with Brad Faxon, one of the best putters on tour during his career, may have given McIlroy an answer he was searching for.
Installed as the 8-1 favourite to win the Masters next month, Tiger Woods exhibited a potpourri of strokes during Thursday’s opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational to validate the odds-makers’ growing confidence in him.
Picture this Australian Open field next year: Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Rickie Fowler, among a host of other international stars inside the world’s Top-50 rankings.
Tiger Woods didn’t quite “one-up” Phil Mickelson by winning the Valspar Championship like his longtime lefty rival suggested earlier in the week. But perhaps, this is all part of an even cooler script that is unfolding.
After Friday’s second round of the Valspar Championship, Paul Casey said, “I want to win this week, but if I don’t I want Tiger to win this week.” One of those wishes came true.
Tiger Woods has played his share of big rounds en route to winning 79 times on the US PGA Tour and collecting 14 Major championships. Sunday’s at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook will be his biggest in years.