Woods Wins It With Birdie at the Last

Orlando, FL (Sports Network) – Tiger Woods rolled in a 24-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole Sunday to beat Bart Bryant by a stroke and win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

The win was Woods’ 64th on the PGA Tour, which tied him with Ben Hogan for third place on the all-time wins list. Woods also collected his fifth straight PGA Tour title and seventh worldwide.

“It’s pretty amazing to be in that kind of company,” acknowledged Woods. “I’ve had an amazing run in my career. Hopefully it’ll continue.”

Woods shot a four-under 66 and finished at 10-under 270 for his fifth win at this event.

Bryant, one of five players who shared the overnight lead, shot a 67 for second.

Woods and Bryant were tied for the lead at nine-under with both having 18 to play. Bryant made a two-putt par in the group ahead of Woods to get in the clubhouse at minus-nine.

The No. 1 player in the world found the fairway off the tee at 18. Woods knocked his second safely over the water and rocks and it stopped 24 feet left of the stick.

Woods had not made a putt over 18 feet, 10 inches all week. That changed when his ball rolled into the cup for the win, which pushed his record to 44-3 with at least a piece of the 54-hole lead.

“I don’t know how I did that,” said Woods, who pocketed $1,044,000 for the win. “I was trying to get good speed on it. I was trying to make sure I didn’t leave myself a second putt. It went in.”

Certainly this win meant a lot for Woods, but it could have meant more to Bryant. He is winless since the 2005 Tour Championship and could have gotten into the field next week at the WGC-CA Championship and next month’s Masters.

“A win here could’ve done a lot for me,” admitted Bryant. “I played the way I thought I had to play down the stretch. That’s why he’s Tiger Woods. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again.”

Defending champion and overnight co-leader Vijay Singh (69), last week’s PODS Championship winner and one of five atop the leaderboard after Saturday Sean O’Hair (69) and Cliff Kresge (67) shared third place at seven-under-par 273.

They got the privilege of seeing another vintage Woods’ performance.

Woods flew out early on Sunday. He sank a 16-foot birdie putt at the second hole to move in front, but Bryant matched him at seven-under par with a 23- footer for birdie at the par-three seventh.

Woods inched ahead again with a tap-in birdie at the par-five sixth. He ran home a 15-foot birdie putt from the back fringe at the ninth to grab a two- shot lead, but Bryant hung tough with a three-foot birdie putt at 10.

Then something unexpected happened to Woods. He missed some putts.

Woods had slightly less than seven feet for birdie at 10 and ran the putt past the hole. It was his first missed putt inside seven feet all week, but what was really shocking was the fact that Woods missed the short comebacker for par.

Bryant enjoyed his share of putting woes one hole later. He three-putted for a bogey from 28 feet to fall one behind Woods. Bryant atoned for the error quickly as he kicked in a short birdie putt at the par-five 12th to once again tie Woods.

Woods pulled ahead again at the 13th with a 10-footer for birdie. He did not give himself many good looks at birdie the rest of the way, but Bryant, a three-time PGA Tour winner, did.

At the par-four 15th, Bryant hit his third to three feet. He converted the birdie chance to tie Woods, which is how it stayed until Woods did what he does.

“I was grinding all day,” said Woods. “I saw Bart made birdie there. We kept saying 10 (under par) at the worst was going to be in a playoff.

“I had to make par to get into a playoff. Low and behold, I made three.”

Ken Duke (68) and Hunter Mahan (69) tied for sixth place at minus-six.

The fifth and final overnight co-leader, Bubba Watson, struggled to a two-over 72 on Sunday. He tied for eighth with Niclas Fasth (66), Alex Cejka (68), Carl Pettersson (69), Tom Pernice, Jr. (69) and Tom Lehman (70) at four-under-par 276.

Phil Mickelson never got anything going all week, Sunday included. He shot a one-under 69 and was part of a large group tied for 21st place at one-under 279.

03/16 18:49:53 ET