Tiger Woods’s stirring victory at the Players Championship was another significant signpost on his way to winning majors again.
His comeback from the depths of 58th in the world began just over a year ago with a victory in a regular tour event. In March he stepped it up by winning a WGC tournament and now he has claimed the most important title in the game outside the four big ones.
This is how majors are won, one step at a time, and he will rightly start as a prohibitive favourite to land his first for five years and 15th in all at the United States Open at Merion next month.
What was significant about Sunday’s success was that it came on a less than happy hunting ground.
Step by step: Tiger Woods won on his 300th appearance on the PGA Tour, as he did on his 100th and 200thWe saw his obvious discomfort with certain aspects of Sawgrass when he tossed away a two-stroke lead with five holes to play with a careless double bogey at the 14th.
Then all those incremental steps he has taken back to greatness paid off, as he still had the confidence to finish the job with three immaculately played holes to finish.
Merion will be like Sawgrass in the sense that it is incredibly short by modern standards and so the test will be all about strategy and patience. Here, then, was an inch-perfect dress rehearsal.
This was Woods’s 300th start on the PGA Tour and, as ever, the history man ring-fenced the landmark and made it special. He won his 100th and his 200th event on tour as well.
Major chance: Woods is hitting peak form immediately before the US OpenHere are some numbers he’s compiled along the way, some stats that are so far off the charts they are hard to comprehend given the context of a sport where one win a year represents a Hall of Fame career.
In those 300 tournaments Woods has won 78 times, had 125 top threes, 182 top 10s, missed just 17 halfway cuts and, oh yes...made $106.83million.
He may not be a nice man, as Sergio Garcia said on Sunday, but as a golfer he is compiling a body of work that will stand for eternity.
Falling by the wayside: Sergio Garcia was among those to have lost their way at SawgrassOnly at some of the more reckless gambling spots in Las Vegas would you see punters tossing away money with the abandon of a few of the leading contenders at the Players Championship on Sunday.
Loser-in-chief was the hapless Sergio Garcia, who stood on the 17th tee tied for the lead and playing for a first prize of $1.7million. Thirty minutes and three balls in the water later, he was collecting a cheque for $235,000.
Veteran American Jeff Maggert hit one bad shot at the 17th and, instead of playing off for that dizzying top prize, was collecting $700,000.
In this context, the $300,000 that Swede David Lingmerth lost by three-putting the last felt almost like loose change.
More from Derek Lawrenson... DEREK LAWRENSON: Plucky Pepperell is well worth his salt after stellar show at Wentworth 27/05/13 World of Golf: Proof that the Rory rumour mill can drive any journalist mad... 20/05/13 DEREK LAWRENSON: Rock provides firm base for developing future English talent 06/05/13 DEREK LAWRENSON: Guan is a marvel at just 14... but shouldn't he be in school? 29/04/13 Derek Lawrenson: Just when the Ryder Cup heroes seemed to have gone missing... McDowell scrambles back to his best form 23/04/13 DEREK LAWRENSON: Scott told us he'd birdie the last... and he did! First Australian winner of Masters gives us a genuine Augusta fairytale 15/04/13 DEREK LAWRENSON: Will another outsider put Augusta's star names in the shade? 08/04/13 DEREK LAWRENSON: Major rethink sees Poulter joining rusty Rory in Texas 01/04/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE No Sergio, you are not a victimLess than an hour’s flight from Ponte Vedra, three gunmen were opening fire at a Mother’s Day parade in New Orleans. Back home in Spain, more than a quarter of his countrymen are unemployed.
Yet Sergio Garcia was standing on a podium at the Players on Sunday, proclaiming himself a ‘victim’.
Asked about his spat with Tiger Woods, he said: ‘It sounds like I was the bad guy here. I was the victim. I have no regrets.’
One regret he should have is a terrible lack of perspective, which has always been his fatal flaw. When majors were slipping through his fingers, he saw himself as the victim of the gods.
Tied with Woods with two holes to play, one man had the humility to play for the middle of the green at the 17th and the other thought he was so good he could attack the pin. In that moment, you saw why Tiger always wins against Sergio, or Sergi-H2O, as one witty American called him after his visits to the water.
How many times have we seen Lee Westwood fall just short and talk about how lucky he feels simply to be contending, with all that’s going on in the world?
Whatever sympathy anyone was feeling for Garcia evaporated when he chose, once more, to portray himself as the victim.
Quote of the week‘If you want to show your kids an inspiring example of what can happen if you work hard, show them Lee Westwood’s short game.’
Former Open and US Open champion Johnny Miller salutes the improvements in the Englishman’s chipping and putting that has seen him go from outside the top 100 in scrambling last year to inside the top five. Eighth place at the Players meant five top-10 finishes in his last six starts. Given his move to America, wouldn’t it be ironic if Westwood’s next win came on his first return to England for six months at the BMW PGA Championship next week?
More... Woods has the last laugh after Garcia jibes as he claims Players Championship win We don't like each other... it's not rocket science, blasts Garcia on Woods feud Garcia accuses Woods of 'lack of respect' as feud breaks into the open
