Woods: Time regulation unnecessary

Tiger Woods sparked controversy in the wake of his World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational victory last night when he criticised a tournament official for putting him and Padraig Harrington on the clock over the closing holes.

Woods landed his seventh WGC-Bridgestone Invitational title on Sunday as Harrington’s title bid met a watery end at Firestone Country Club’s 16th hole.

Harrington, the US PGA champion, had been chasing his first victory of the year and had regained a one-shot lead in his dramatic battle with world number one Woods when the final group of the day was informed by John Paramor, the European Tour chief referee, that they were being put on the clock as they had fallen too far behind the penultimate group.

Both men missed the fairway off the tee, but Harrington, from the right, found a mound of rough at the front edge of a left-side fairway bunker with his second shot and sent his next shot into greenside rough.

Harrington saw his flop shot out of the rough bounce off the green into the greenside pond, the resultant triple bogey at the par five ending his bid for victory as he tied for second with Australia’s Robert Allenby, four shots behind Woods.

The Irishman said he had rushed his shots on the 16th but accepted the time penalty. Woods, however, slammed Paramor for his actions, saying: “Like I was telling (Harrington) out there, I’m sorry that John got in the way of a great battle because it was such a great battle for 16 holes and we’re going at it head to head and unfortunately that happened.”