by Martin Fitzpatrick… 
Sergio Gacria and Phil Mickelson were within a hair of taking over Wood’s number one spot in the world rankings.
The young guns were licking their chops thinking that it could possibly take longer than expected for Woods to get back to his top form.
Well, Tiger Woods took the wind out of everyone’s sails on Sunday by winning the Arnold Palmer invitational for the sixth time in his career.
What has to have the rest of the PGA Tour shaking in their spikes is not so much the fact that Woods won the Arnold Palmer invitational in just his second stroke play event following a nine-month playoff, but the way in which Woods managed to win the event without even playing at his best.
Contrary to what one might believe had they simply tuned into ESPN’s Sports Center and watched the highlights of Woods’ late Sunday charge on Sean O’Hair, Woods did not play particularly well for most of the week and displayed a game that was still, well, downright rusty.
During the first two rounds, Woods was erratic off the tee to say the least and he managed to his just 50 percent of greens in regulation.
Despite striking the ball pretty horrendously during his first two rounds, Woods put on a short-game clinic and managed to card no higher than a 69.
Woods chipped in on three separate occasions during the first two rounds and recorded a scrambling percentage of 72.73 for the week which is part of what allowed him to average just 25 putts per round throughout the tournament, which ranked first in the field.
What makes Woods just a little bit better than everyone else, is that he is so good at so many aspects of his game. Even if his ball-striking ability completely breaks down, as it did on Thursday and Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, he is still able to salvage the round and remain in contention through relying on his short-game.
Furthermore, Woods ability to make something out of nothing not only keeps him in contention, but also mentally breaks down his competition.
On Saturday afternoon, just is it was looking as if Woods was digging himself too large of a deficit to overcome on Sunday, he pulled the rabbit out of his hat as he has done time and time again.
Woods’ hit a horrendous approach shot into the 16th green on Saturday which left his ball burried in the thick green-side rough.
Woods managed to get the ball out of the rough but sent his flop-shot rolling 15 yards over the green, which he then followed with a less than stellar chip shot leaving him ten feet left for a bogey five.
Woods broke out the putter that he has relied upon for damage control so many times throughout his career and sunk the ten foot bogey putt; minimizing the damage to one stroke in a potential devastating situation.
On the 18th hole on Saturday, following a drive into the thick rough off the right-side of the fairway, Woods made a rare mental error.
Instead of laying up and once again trying to minimize the damage, Woods decided to try and go directly for the green over the lake that has swallowed so many golf balls and dreams throughout the years at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club and Lodge.
Woods ball buried in the bank lining the left side of the lake and after five minutes of searching with a contingent that consisted of his playing partners, their caddies, spotters, scorers, officials and television crew, Woods called off the search party and was forced to take a one-stroke penalty and once again attempt an approach shot over the lake.
Woods hit a decent approach shot to 25 feet from the hole and once again limited the damage by sinking the putt for a bogey five.
Had Woods double-bogeyed the 16th and 18th holes, as most mortal golfers would have, he would have likely taken himself out of the tournament.
Woods’ bogey putt on the 18th hole on Saturday could have quite possibly been the most important putt he made all week. Had Woods missed that putt on Saturday, he would have taken himself out of the final group, thus eliminating the intimidation factor that so evidently cut the legs out from underneath Sean O’Hair on Sunday.
As much as O’Hair talked about how he was not going to pay attention to what Woods was doing on Sunday and how he would go out and play his own game, from the opening tee shot, O’Hair was clearly in a situation that the 26 year-old was just not ready for.
O’Hair looked timid over every shot on the opening holes and looked downright terrified when Woods birdied two out of his first three holes and cut O’Hair’s lead from five strokes down to just two.
In fairness to O’Hair, he has to be given a lot of credit.
Despite squandering a five-stroke lead, O’Hair settled down and went head to head with Woods on the back nine.
But, by that point it was simply too late. Woods has drawn blood and as we have seen him do so many times before, Woods brought his game up a notch heading down the final stretch.
On the par-three 14th, Woods’ drive buried in the green-side bunker just a few inches away from the lip.
Woods attached the ball with the athletic force that only he can produce on a golf course and managed to get the ball out of the bunker and to within ten feet of the hole.
O’Hair was already in with par and probably thinking that he had just gotten a stroke back from Woods drained his double breaking par putt as if it were a routine up-and-down.
After a good drive at the par-four 16th O’Hair sent is approach shot into the water off the left-side of the green.
Woods’ drive on the 16th landed in such a horrific lie in the rough that he was forced to just pitch out, after which, he knocked his approach shot to within three feet of the hole and took a one-stroke lead after O’Hair recorded a bogey.
On the par-three 17th. Woods once again left his tee shot buried up against the bank of the bunker and was lucky to even blast the ball out to twenty feet from the hole.
O’Hair calmly two-putted the 17th green and after Woods was unable to converge on his long par putt, the two went to the 72nd hole tied at four under-par.
Both players found the fairway with their drives and O’Hair played it safe by going for the back left of the green, avoiding any flirtation whatsoever with the water.
As would be expected, Tiger went in for the kill. Woods played a high cut that landed just beyond the flag stick and spin back to within 15 feet of the whole.
O’Hair played a quality lag putt that left him three feet for par and left Woods with a putt to win the tournament.
Sometimes it can truly seem as if the golf gods are sitting up there writing out a script for Tiger Woods that always seems to place him in the most dramatic situations from which to create those moments that ever golf fan will remember forever.
Woods looked as if he was in some kind of trance as he lined up the putt from ever angle and calmly knocked the putt into the dead center of the hole, before unleashing a massive upper-cut first pump and jumping into caddie Steve William’s arms while the thousands of fans screamed their heads off knowing that they had just witness one of those ‘Tiger Woods moments’.
On Sunday evening, Woods showed us all exactly what we have been so desperately missing over the past nine months.
It wasn’t the incredible saves out of the bunker, those pin-seeking approach shots on the back nine or the long par putts that he always seems to sink in the most crucial situations that we missed.
What was missed more than anything else in Woods’ absence was the theatre that he provides.
Many players have sunk tournament winning putts, yet few do so in the same dramatic fashion as Woods.
Obviously Woods cannot plan ahead of time to have a tournament winning putt on the 72nd hole with the grandstands overflowing with fans and Arnold Palmer himself standing at the side of the green with the setting Florida sun behind him.
This is something that would be concocted in a Hollywood studio, yet Woods seems to somehow find himself in these situations time and time again
This theatre Woods so often provides is the real entertainment that draws those millions of fans to the game of golf that wouldn’t otherwise be there if it were not Tiger Woods standing over that tournament-winning putt.
The pure electricity that was present on the back-nine yesterday was something we have not seen the likes of since the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines.
Woods certainly has not lost his uncanny ability to make the big shot in the most crucial situations and he has once again demonstrated why he is arguably the greatest clutch putter to have ever lived.
Woods place as the best golfer on the face of the planet appears to be once again secure—if there was ever even a doubt about that in the first place.
And what is likely to make the rest of the PGA Tour toss and turn at night is the fact that Woods was able to win with a game far less than his best.
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