Tiger's physical gifts, sense for dramatic have returned

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Moments before Tiger Woods drew back his putter blade for the last time Sunday night, a single voice in the crowd pierced the air with a word that didn't sit particularly well with anybody in attendance.

Especially Woods.

The thousands-strong throng that surrounded the final green at the Arnold Palmer Invitational looked on, eyes roaming in the gloaming some 10 minutes after sunset, as Woods surveyed the tournament-winning putt from 12 feet.

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"Somebody yelled, 'Playoff,' " Woods said, laughing. "Nah." For the third time this decade, Woods made a winning birdie putt on the 72nd hole to win by a shot at the Bay Hill Club & Lodge, earning yet another bear hug from the patron figure, Palmer, who looked almost as happy as Woods himself.

For good reason. The King, tremendously proud of his annual shindig, got to place the winner's blue blazer around his Orlando neighbor for the sixth time, and the second successive year.

Last year, when Woods made a 24-footer to win by a stroke, Palmer grabbed him on the edge of the green and said, "What else is new?"

Talk about déjà vu. Palmer, 79, again sensed that the Woods attempt was destined for the bottom of the cup. Where else would it go?

"Not much question, was there?" Palmer said. "It's happened every time. The only question was, this time, it went in the side, instead of the middle.

"This is the way -- it's habit."

The habitual heartbreaker this time took down 26-year-old Sean O'Hair, who for the second straight year, was unable to retain the 54-hole lead when Woods came charging. Despite three plugged lies in bunkers, Woods kept applying pressure as though he hadn't been on the shelf for most of the previous nine months.

"It feels good, good to be back in contention, to feel the rush," Woods said. "It's been awhile, but it feels good."

It took all of three starts, and only two in stroke play, for Woods to reaffirm his place at the top of the golfing pecking order, a rather frightening proposition with the Masters a week in the distance.

"Not bad, huh?" Woods cracked to his publicist after emerging from the scoring center.

There's an understatement. He started the day five shots behind O'Hair, so it matched Woods' largest comeback after three rounds, matching the personal mark he set in 2000 at Pebble Beach.

'I got a little excited. It was just the moment,' Tiger Woods says of his trademark celebration. (AP)

No knock on O'Hair, but Woods did everybody a favor, too. Had he missed on the 72nd, play would have been suspended because of darkness and O'Hair and Woods would have teed it up in sudden death on the 18th at 10 a.m., PGA Tour rules chief Mark Russell said. Caddie Steve Williams might have been happier than his boss when the putt went down -- he had a plane trip back to New Zealand set for Monday morning.

Bay Hill, located perhaps a mile from Woods' home as the crow flies, has become the site of some of his most memorable triumphs. In fact, rather unbelievably, the last three birdie putts Woods has made to win by a shot on the last hole of regulation were on Palmer's 18th green, in 2001 to edge Phil Mickelson, 2008 to beat Bart Bryant and on Sunday night to edge O'Hair.

Zach Johnson, the third member of the final group, did a darned fine deadpan standup routine after he witnessed Woods' harvest of yet another Bay Hill title. He now has won six professional titles at Firestone, Torrey Pines and Palmer's home track.

Zach was dumbstruck, obviously.

"I don't think I've ever seen him make a putt when he really needed it," Johnson smirked. "And that was the epitome of sarcasm."

He was just getting warmed up. He stood a few feet away on the edge of the green, closer than anybody, as Woods stalked the game winner, the skies turning from gray to black. The crowd, including Palmer perched on the nearby hill, squinted to see the hole. Woods said he actually "felt it into the hole."

"I was in awe." Johnson said. "I don't want to say I was in shock. I just turned to the crowd and threw my hands up."

So did Woods, who didn't go quite as crazy as he did last year, when he tossed his hat to the ground with an overhand spike and almost did a cartwheel after winning by a stroke at Palmer's Place. This time, he did a few leaping fist pumps, grabbed Williams and exchanged some hugs and backslaps.

"I got a little excited," he said. "It was just the moment."

Speaking of which, Woods said he relished the long-absent sense of the hunt that washed him over the back nine as he made crucial putts on Nos. 14, 15 and 18. Lengthy time on the bench or not, it all came flooding back.

"You just remember how to do it," he said.

Sort of like writing endings that are impossible to predict.