Woods gamble pays off

Those wondering where Tiger Woods was on Monday morning as the golf world waited to see if he would be in a play-off for the USPGA now know the answer - he was 1,000 miles away.

If Woods’ name had been called to go into three extra holes with Phil Mickelson or whoever he would not have been there and the chance of an 11th major title would have disappeared.

The Masters and Open champion revealed today that he flew home from New Jersey to Florida on Sunday night, having conceded defeat even though the championship was not decided and he was only two shots behind.

“We went back to the house and looked at the leaderboard. They weren’t all going to come back to me,” said Woods in Akron, where he will tomorrow begin an attempt to win the NEC world championship for the fourth time in seven years.

“There were three guys (Mickelson, Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington) ahead of me, two guys (Vijay Singh and Davis Love) tied and Goose (Retief Goosen) at one with two par fives.

“Yeah it was a risk, but also it wasn’t either. These are the best players in the world – look at who’s on the board. It wasn’t like guys who have never been there before.

“If you have guys who had never been there before, then it might have been a different story, but each of those guys (apart from Bjorn) had won major championships.”

Woods was proved right, of course, but what a story it would have been if his two under par total – posted on Sunday before a thunderstorm halted play for the day – had proved good enough.

At the resumption Mickelson was four under on the 14th green, Bjorn three under and in the rough on the 15th and Elkington three under on the 16th tee.

Singh, Love and Goosen were unable to beat Woods’ total as it turned out and whe Bjorn bogeyed the 15th and Mickelson the 16th and then Elkington hooked into the trees on the last it was not certain they would beat Woods either.

By then the world number one was working out in the gym.

“When I turned it on Elk was hitting his second shot on 18 and (he thought) ’what’s doing right there?’ Then they showed a replay.”

Elkington’s drive had rebounded onto the fairway, but he had no hope of making the green on the par five and when he put his second shot into a sand-filled divot hole the par he needed to beat Woods was still no guarantee.

The Australian did achieve his five, though, and that was that for Woods.