Tiger’s Prowl Falls Short

How much of a lead do you have to have on Tiger Woods and still win?

The answer is eight shots, or at least it came close to that on Sunday at Sherwood Country Club, where Padraig Harrington took an eight-shot lead over Woods after two holes, blew all of it but one, and still hung on to win.

For degree of difficulty, Harrington gets high marks for this victory, and also a very high stack of dollar bills -- 1 million of them.

Sure, Harrington might have been breathing heavily by the end of the day, but he squeezed out a two-shot victory over Woods in the $3.8-million Target World Challenge.

“I heard somebody on the course say, ‘He’s getting in your head,’ ” Harrington said of Woods. “Well, he’s been there all day.

“I knew that Tiger was going to come at me. I knew I was going to feel the pressure. I did always feel it was still in my hands, no matter what Tiger did. I was in control.”

As far as comebacks go, this one was fun for everyone, with the possible exception of Harrington, although it didn’t come close to Woods’ victory at Pebble Beach in 2000 when he trailed Matt Gogel by seven shots with seven holes to play.

Woods never caught Harrington, but twice climbed to within one shot on the back nine.

Harrington started with a six-shot lead over Woods and still had a three-shot lead with five to go, but double bogeyed the 14th when he hit his second shot out of bounds and Woods found himself just one shot behind.

“I had a pretty good shot at it,” Woods said. “Eight back, I got it down to one, I gave myself an opportunity. I just hit a bad shot at the wrong time.”

At the 16th, the last par five, Harrington made a birdie and Woods fell two shots down even though he chipped in to save par after pull-hooking his second shot 30 yards left of the green on top of a hill.

But Woods rolled in a 12-footer to birdie the 17th and the margin was again one shot.

That other bad shot Woods talked about was his second shot at the 18th when he missed the green and wound up with his only bogey of the round.

Harrington rolled in a short putt for par, signed for a one-under 71 and a 20-under total of 268, smiled broadly and waited for somebody to hand him the $1-million winner’s check. It’s unofficial money, but real nonetheless, the same as his victory, Harrington said.

“I count it in my official book as a win,” he said. “Against Tiger, against a world-class field. This will give me confidence.”

Woods made $500,000 as runner-up and donated the money to his foundation.

Woods had six birdies and a bogey and his 18-under total of 270 was actually three shots better than last year, when he finished with a 64 and beat Vijay Singh by three shots.

Because there was so much cash on hand and they needed to split it only 16 ways, there really weren’t any losers.

For instance, Rich Beem was five shots worse than anyone else, he was the only player who failed to break par, and he still made $130,000.

It’s hard to say that’s a bad week.

Meanwhile, Davis Love III showed he knows how to make money on the last day when he shot a 65. That moved Love up from eighth place, which meant he gave himself a nice little raise of $150,000 and a check for $300,000 for third place.

Chris DiMarco also was effective, but he had a longer way to go than Love because he started the day in 11th place. But when DiMarco closed with a 64, he finished seventh, and that increased his prize money from $142,500 to $170,000.

Colin Montgomerie had a 67 and tied for fourth with Bernhard Langer, who had a 69. They made $220,000 each.