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I know it's the first week of December and we aren't exactly in prime golf viewing time but if you missed the final few holes of the Northwestern Mutual World Challenge on Sunday you missed some dramatic golf.
Tiger Woods led by four shots over Zach Johnson after the 10th hole today. And he lost.
Johnson was immense over the last eight holes (plus the lone playoff hole). He birdied Nos. 11, 12, 16, and 17 and cashed in the crazy chip for par you see above on a drop after he dunked one in the water on No. 18.
His reaction was epic:
Johnson told NBC after his round the 18th was almost too much for him to take.
"The next shot was a little bit too dramatic for me. I'm lucky it went in."
This was shortly after hitting one of the worst pressure shots of his life. He had a clear path to the 18th green and hit a complete shank in the water but, as you can see, recovered quite nicely to make par.
Woods had a pretty dramatic 18th as well. He hit it in the sand on his second shot and got up-and-down after watching the Johnson hole-out to send the tournament to a playoff.
Here was his reaction to the madness:
Woods told NBC it didn't really matter what Johnson did on the 72nd hole.
"I thought either way I'm going to have to make four to win the tournament or go to a playoff."
On the playoff hole Woods missed a four-footer after Johnson made par. The putt would have sent the tournament to a second playoff hole.
You'll likely get a lot of "see, this is the new Tiger" stuff over the next few days. But the real story was Johnson.
He was a monster down the stretch.
I thought Shane Bacon of Yahoo put it best on Twitter as the tournament was winding down:
I think I speak for everyone when I say, when Zach J. won the Masters none of us knew he had THESE sized stones. Dude’s a killer.
— Shane Bacon (@shanebacon) December 8, 2013
Woods knew it, too.
"I had a two-shot lead starting out the day. Zach, I don't know how the last three iron shots didn't go in the hole. It was pretty impressive on 16, 17, and 18. He got me."
He did get you, Tiger. He got everybody.
And even though this is certainly the silliest time of year for golf we got to see two titans clashing on Sunday afternoon which was an absolute blast.
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