Ten years ago, Tiger Woods was doing his best to wrestle THE PLAYERS title away from Sergio Garcia, but Garcia was having none of it. It was not their first battle. Their initial encounter came in 1999 when the 19-year-old Spaniard led the first round of the PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club and challenged Woods all the way through to the final hole.
That was the year Garcia hit the shot nearly every golf fan remembers, the one that endeared him to many. On the 16th hole, his ball landed partially behind a tree, near some roots. After some debate, he decided to attempt a Seve Ballesteros-type move and hit a slice with his eyes closed. Sounds impossible, but Garcia pulled it off. After impact he ran uphill toward the green where, miraculously, his ball was waiting.
Despite making some errors during that final round, Woods claimed the 1999 PGA for his second major championship. It seems like a lifetime ago. Garcia finished in second place and received a call from the King of Spain, which interrupted his conversations with a group of media gathered around him.
“I have to take this call. It’s the King,” was close to what he said.
As time went on, Garcia began to feel that the golf gods were against him when it came to defeating Woods. But honestly, as good as Garcia was and still is, Woods was just that much better. However, the fact is, they developed what you might call “a history.”
By 2013, Woods was in his 17th season. His victory count was in the 70s. In the first three months of that year, he won three times: the Farmers Insurance Open, followed a little over a month later, by the WGC-Cadillac (at Doral) and then the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He was up to victory No. 77.
In April, Woods did not win the Masters, a disappointment to be sure. That honor went to Adam Scott, using a long putter to make his final stroke as raindrops began to fall. A month later, in May, it was on to THE PLAYERS.
After the second round, Garcia led Woods by a shot. That meant on Saturday, for the third round, tension was sure to be high because Garcia and Woods were paired. It didn’t take long for things to become a bit contentious.
On the par 5 second hole, Woods hit into the trees on the right, the ones that separate No. 1 and No. 2.
Garcia was in the fairway and was waiting to hit. Woods had to clear the gallery from around his shot and find a tunnel to hit through. There were fans surrounding Woods on three sides, so he did not have line of sight to Garcia.
Garcia apparently was away and prepared to hit his second shot. When a roar occurred close to the time of his swing, he became flustered. It had come from those around Woods who had reached for a fairway wood. He was going for the green in two.
NBC later showed the timing of Garcia’s shot and the cheers. The fan noise occurred before Garcia hit, so he could have backed off. It was, according to the ESPN reporter, not in the middle of Garcia’s swing.
Garcia’s shot ended up in the right trees up near the green. He was not happy, to say the least and seemed to blame Woods. The unfortunate upshot was that he made a double bogey and fell out of the lead. Naturally that distressed him.
Woods’ second shot landed in the right greenside bunker. Being the scrambler that he is, he birdied from there.
From that point forward, the tension between Garcia and Woods grew with each hole, until it was broken by a rain delay at the 7th hole.
During the pause in play, Garcia told NBC, “It was my shot to hit. He moved all the crowd that he needed to move, and I waited for that. I want to say that he didn’t see that I was ready. But you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit.”
Woods, in his press conference after the round said, “Well, the marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot, and then I hear his comments afterwards and not real surprising that he's complaining about something.”
That’s as close as you’re going to see to having one golfer call another one out. There was just plain no love lost between the two, and the incident didn’t help matters.
After a weather interruption of two hours, golfers returned to the course. Woods’ form had cooled. He missed putts at 10, 11 and 12 by a total of about eight inches, according to reports at the time.
“The greens slowed up just enough where those putts before the delay, those putts would have gone in if they would have had a little bit more pace to them,” Woods explained. “I needed to make the adjustment, and I didn't quite do it.”
The third round was halted due to darkness at 7:48 p.m. There were eight players remaining on the course, including Woods and Garcia.
At that point, David Lingmerth, who had missed five cuts in a row, was leading.
“I don't know if I could predict that this was going to happen, but my game was feeling a lot better than missing five cuts in a row; I can promise you that,” Lingmerth said.
At the end of the third round, which came Sunday morning, Lingmerth, Garcia and Woods were all tied at 11-under par. One shot back were Ryan Palmer, Henrik Stenson and Casey Wittenberg.
According to an Associated Press story at the time, after his third round concluded, Garcia said to Golf Channel about Woods, ''We don't enjoy each other's company. You don't need to be a rocket engineer to figure that out.”
And so, after the squabbles of round three that was spread over two days, Sunday allowed the golf to shine instead of the quarrel.
Someone counted the number of times Garcia and Woods had been paired together in PGA Tour events up to that point in their careers, and it was 19. Woods had outscored Garcia on 14 of those occasions and tied Garcia four times.
Mercifully, Woods and Garcia were not put together in the final round. In the last pair, it was Garcia and Lingmerth.
Woods was in the second to last group. Wearing his traditional Sunday red and black, Woods started well with birdies at the par-5 2nd and par-4 4th. His first bogey of the day came at the 6th hole. However, he was able to follow that up with a birdie at the difficult 7th. Woods made the turn in 34, at 13-under par.
Then it was on to the challenging final nine holes. Surprisingly, Woods did not birdie the par-5 11th, but Garcia did. He needed to make birdie there to get back to 11-under. Lingmerth had endured two bogeys and made just one birdie by that point in the round, putting him at 10-under par.
At the short par-4 12th, Woods made birdie to go to 14-under. The difficult 14th brought his first sign of trouble. He missed his tee shot, and it floated left and into the water beyond the bunker that guards the fairway. He would finish the hole with double bogey and fall back to 12-under par. The door was open for Garcia. He birdied the 13th to tie Woods at 12-under.
Woods needed a birdie, and fortunately, he had an opportunity coming his way at the par-5 16th. His second shot landed in the small bunker short of the green, very close to the bulkhead. It was an easy sand splash to less than three feet, and Woods went into the lead on his own at 13-under par.
Here’s where the strategy of Pete Dye came into the equation. The plan for the 16th and 17th holes was to have the pressure increase by allowing golfers to see what their competitors were doing, if they dared to look. To see whether they are gaining ground on the course and the field or struggling. So that meant that back in the fairway of the 16th hole, Garcia and Lingmerth could watch Woods make birdie, putting pressure on them. Then, they would watch Woods at the 17th.
Garcia stepped up to the challenge and matched it with a birdie of his own at 16. He, too, went to 13-under. Lingmerth, however, had bogeyed the 14th, and even though he birdied the 16th, he was at 12-under par, one shot back.
Then came the 17th hole. It’s always there, lurking. Waiting to spoil someone’s day. It’s The Round Killer, capital letters intended.
It’s easy to imagine that there must be an invisible force out there, a slightly grey apparition, hovering around and above that island green because there are just so many horrible things that happen.
Garcia could only watch as Woods finished the 17th.
Woods had launched a conservative shot to the green. Nothing heroic. He made par, loading more pressure on Garcia’s shoulders. Garcia could not make a mistake now. Woods headed to the 18th tee, and it was Garcia’s turn to face the island.
Uncharacteristically, for the former PLAYERS champ, Garcia hit not one, but two balls into the lake at the treacherous par 3. It was an absolute disaster for his score and a quadruple bogey 7 on his scorecard. And just like that, he handed the title to Woods. His chance to win a second PLAYERS was lost.
Playing a hole ahead, Woods no doubt heard the crowd moan when Garcia’s two shots found water. But he could not see who had hit them. Was it Garcia? Or Lingmerth? He did not know what, exactly, had happened. But something had.
Woods played on. His second shot was so good that it flew directly over the flag. He was in good shape.
Garcia stepped up to the 18th tee, likely shaken by making a quadruple bogey on the 17th. He proceeded to hit yet another tee ball into the water.
Woods might have heard the splash although it’s certain fans were cheering him as he approached the green. Regardless, he certainly heard the crowd reaction to Garcia’s shot. But it’s bad form to turn around and look at a guy who just hit a ball into the water. He knew it was likely that he just needed two putts. Then he would wait for the final group to finish.
In the end, Woods was in scoring when Garcia finished. It was Lingmerth who actually had a birdie putt to force a playoff, but he didn’t make it.
Woods triumphed, winning his second PLAYERS title and his 78th PGA TOUR event. He was creeping ever closer to the record of 82 victories held by Sam Snead. He also became one of few, including Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Hal Sutton and Steve Elkington, who were two-time winners of THE PLAYERS.
When asked about his fate at the 17th hole, Garcia was somewhat philosophical.
“That hole has been good to me for the most part,” he said. “Today, it wasn't. That's the way it is. That's the kind of hole it is. You've got to love it for what it is.”
Realistically, it’s hard to love a hole that just blew up your score, but everybody has to face the demon that lives there.
“The golf course played tricky today,” Woods said after his round. “I hit it so good today, it was fun. I hit it high, low, left to right, right to left, whatever I wanted, except for that tee shot at 14. I didn't really miss a whole lot of shots.”
Woods thought the tournament was secured at 15.
“I tugged a 9‑iron left and had a decent lie to get it up‑and‑down and hit a pretty good shot to get to where I had a putt at it, and that putt was big because I figured I still was tied for the lead in the tournament, and if I played the last four holes at the time under par, I thought at worst I'd be in a playoff,” he explained. “I ended up actually winning the golf tournament just by playing the last four holes 1‑under.”
He said it was a tough battle.
“I felt like I was in control of it after I birdied 12 and gave it right back at 14 with a double,” he added. “It was game on, and anybody could win the golf tournament.”
But anybody didn’t. Tiger Woods did for his 78th PGA TOUR title.
Woods went on to win the WGC-Bridgestone in August for his fifth victory of the year, but in May, it was all about THE PLAYERS.
For those who like to reflect on Woods career, his five victories in 2013 was not his biggest season. That came in 2000 when he garnered nine titles, including three majors, the first three of his Tiger Slam. Woods actually won five times in five different seasons: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2013.
