Musings: King Tiger

The 30th anniversary of the Arnold Palmer Invitational was celebrated in style — with a fist-pumping, hat-slamming, roaring Tiger Woods sinking a 24-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to earn a dramatic one-shot victory at Bay Hill.

“What else is new?” laughed Palmer, upon greeting Tiger with a handshake and a hug.

In fact, “The King” had predicted Tiger would drain the difficult left-to-right breaking birdie putt — although Woods had not made a putt outside of 20-feet all week long. Watching greenside, Palmer enjoyed the moment while his event took on a major championship feel.

The atmosphere was only enhanced by Woods’ reaction to winning. Wearing his traditional Sunday red shirt, black pants and black hat, Tiger erupted as the ball rolled into the hole, slamming his hat onto the ground and fist-pump-flexing with both hands as he yelled facing the raucous crowd.

“You know, when Stevie (Tiger’s caddie, Steve Williams) handed me my hat, I was like ‘How in the hell did he get my hat?’ Evidently, it came off. I don’t know how it came off, but it came off,” said Woods, on his official website.

“I was so into the moment of the putt going in and winning the golf tournament.”

But it was Woods’ interaction with Palmer walking off the green following the celebration that was even more poignant.

A smiling Palmer proudly embraced Woods, his obvious heir to the golf kingdom. Meanwhile, Tiger’s response was one that only he can pull off — thanking Palmer as a fan of the legendary former player, but laughing with Arnie as one of his historical peers. The 32-year-old Tiger actually dropped a “buddy” and maybe a “dude” on the 78-year-old icon while exiting a chaotic scene at the 18th green.

The win moved Woods past Palmer on the all-time PGA Tour victory list and into a tie for third place with Ben Hogan. Tiger’s 64 career wins trails only “The Golden Bear” Jack Nicklaus (73) and “Slammin’” Sam Snead (82).

Woods has now won the Arnold Palmer Invitational five times and is playing arguably the best golf of a career that already includes 64 titles and 13 major championships. In fact, Tiger has won all four tournaments he has played in so far this season.

Conservatively, Woods has won 16 of the last 25 official PGA Tour events — which are defined as tournaments that count towards the money list — he has played. However, counting the unofficial Target World Challenge and European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, Woods has won 19-of-28 tournaments dating back to the 2006 British Open.

• Sunday’s final round started with a five-way tie at the top between Woods, Vijay Singh, Bart Bryant, Sean O’Hair and Bubba Watson. That group ended the day in 1st (Woods), 2nd (Bryant), T-3rd (Singh and O’Hair) and T-8th (Watson).

• Bart Bryant finished 2nd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour, while his older brother Brad Bryant finished T-2nd at the AT&T Champions Classic on the Champions Tour — competing with Loren Roberts and losing to Denis Watson during a playoff finish.

• “There’s always next week.” — Defending tournament champ Vijay Singh. The vilified Fijian was the 36-hole and 54-hole leader but could only graciously accept defeat thanks to a poor round (73) on Saturday and a shaky putter on Sunday.

• “That’s why he’s Tiger Woods.” — Runner-up Bart Bryant, reacting to what transpired. Bryant went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 ranked player in the world and posted a 9-under but could only laugh and shake his head while watching Woods hit the winning putt.

• “The guy’s not even human.” — NBC commentator, 25-time PGA Tour winner and two-time major champion (1976 British Open, 1973 U.S. Open) Johnny Miller, reacting to Tiger Woods’ out of this world performance on Sunday.

• “It’s like having the ball with a few seconds to go. Do you want it or not want it? I would much rather have it in my hands than anyone else’s.” — Tiger Woods, whose tournament-winning 24-foot putt was the equivalent of a game-winning buzzer-beater on what was, coincidentally, the NCAA Tournament's Selection Sunday.

• Once again, whether he likes it or not, Tiger Woods appears to be chasing the late great Byron Nelson’s PGA Tour record of 11 straight wins, which happened over five months in 1945. A recap of the last 10 events Tiger has played in: