Golf: Woods toasts ‘special’ triumph

Tiger Woods last night described his third Masters victory as ‘‘awfully special’’.

In beating South Africa’s Retief Goosen by three Woods emulated Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo by retaining the title.

Because of that it was Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson rather than the defending champion who helped Woods into the winner’s traditional green jacket.

‘‘I think we might wear this jacket out putting it on you,’’ said Johnson.

Woods said: ‘‘My game plan was to shoot under par on both nines. I figured that eliminated some of the guys from making the run.

‘‘With Retief struggling at the start (he bogeyed the first, fourth and eighth by three-putting each time) I just wanted to keep playing solid.’’

On the triple-bogey eight from Ernie Els at the 13th and quadruple-bogey ninth from Vijay Singh on the 15th that settled the issue - both were second at the time - Woods said: ‘‘I was kind of surprised, but it didn’t affect my concentration.

‘‘No matter what they were doing I still have to execute my shots.

‘‘Back-to-back wins are awfully special. For some reason this one seemed harder. My legs are a little bit tired I’m that bit older now.’’

Goosen said: ‘‘My irons were terrible and those three three-putts put me down.’’