Tiger Is Back in the Chips

On a final day at the Masters that could have been musically set to “Sunrise, Sunset” because that’s how long it lasted, Tiger Woods made a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 18 on the first playoff hole to defeat Chris DiMarco at Augusta National Golf Club.

Woods ... remember him?

He went 10 majors and almost three years between his eighth and ninth major championship victories -- a Dust Bowl drought by his standards -- but you can now officially pencil the 29-year-old Woods back in his one-man race toward golfing posterity.

“I’ve kind of battled the last couple of years to work hard on my game and make some changes,” Woods said. “It was nice to get back there again and be in contention with a chance to win coming up the back nine on Sunday. It’s a thrill.”

His ninth major -- made possible in part by a shot-for-the-ages chip-in for birdie at No. 16, and achieved despite uncharacteristically giving away a two-stroke lead in the last two holes of regulation -- leaves him at the clubhouse turn in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus’ professional major championship record of 18.

“I guess I’m halfway there,” said Woods, whose victory returned him to No. 1 in the world rankings. “A long way to go.”

Victory came on the 28th hole he and DiMarco played Sunday, in fading sunlight and lengthening shadows, after the third round of the rain-marred tournament was completed in the morning.

Woods’ nine majors tie him with Gary Player and Ben Hogan for third all-time. Only Walter Hagen, with 11 majors, stands between Woods and Nicklaus.

Woods won his fourth green jacket, tying Arnold Palmer. Only Nicklaus, with six Masters titles, has more.

You can go on and on and on -- which is pretty much the way Sunday felt.

The Masters bureau of statistics will record that Woods and DiMarco finished tied at 12-under 276 in regulation before returning to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff.

Woods shot a final round of one-under 71 to DiMarco’s four-under 68.

“Twelve under is usually good enough to win,” DiMarco said of his 276. “I just was playing against Tiger Woods.”

Luke Donald and Retief Goosen finished tied for third, seven shots back at 283, and there was a five-way at 284.

Phil Mickelson, the defending champion, started the final round six strokes back and shot a 74 to finish at 285.

There were other players on the course, but Sunday’s showdown essentially amounted to match play between Woods and DiMarco, played under breakneck pressure.

DiMarco gave away a four-stroke lead in 22 minutes in the morning and Woods later leaked away a four-shot lead of his own.

Woods is 9-0 in majors in which he has held the 54-hole lead, but this was not the Woods who ransacked the field at the 1997 Masters, or who ran roughshod at the 2000 U.S. Open.

Woods stumbled, staggered and almost choked. He won despite making bogey on his last two holes in regulation.

“Any time you can make him hiccup a little bit you know you’re doing something right,” DiMarco said.

Imagine the backlash had Woods not prevailed after his spectacular, improbable, sure-to-be-replayed-for-eternity chip-in for birdie at the par-three 16th?

That was the one where Woods pitched from behind the green, the ball skipping up a slope and then ever-so-slowly trickling down 25 feet toward the hole, pausing at the lip of the cup for about two seconds before dropping in.

“It was one of my more creative shots,” said Woods, who also called it “one of the best ones I’ve ever hit. It turned things around. It was pretty huge.”

That birdie gave Woods a two-shot lead with two holes to play -- game, set, match.

Woods, though, was so caught up in his moment he almost forgot to finish.

He whacked a wayward tee shot on the par-four 17th and made bogey to DiMarco’s par, reducing the lead to one.

Woods recovered on No. 18 with a solid drive but flew his approach shot into the bunker, and his shot from there left him a 10-foot putt for par.

DiMarco’s third shot, from just off the green, hit the pin.

Had it dropped in, he would have won the green jacket on a Woods bogey.

It didn’t work out like that.

Woods, putting for the win, ran the ball past the hole for bogey.

DiMarco, getting a read off Woods’ putt, made his par to force a playoff.

Woods didn’t blow his 18th-hole do-over, striping a three-wood off the tee and then planting his second shot on the green.

DiMarco’s second attempt at 18 mirrored his first.

His second shot came up short, rolled back down off the green, and DiMarco executed a brilliant up-and-down for par.

This time par wasn’t good enough.

Given a second chance, Woods drained a birdie putt and punctuated victory with his trademark fist pump.

DiMarco will remember how the game might have tipped for him. “If you go back to two holes,” he said. “His chip on 16 and my chip on 18 that had every right to go in the hole. If those things are turned, it’s the other way around.”

It’s been a tough-luck year for DiMarco in majors. In August, he left short an 18-foot putt on the final hole that could have given him the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, won by Vijay Singh in a playoff over DiMarco and Justin Leonard.

History, though, will reflect kindly on the way DiMarco battled Sunday.

He might have crawled in a hole after shooting 41 -- Jeff Maggert’s age -- Sunday morning on the back nine of his third round.

Instead, he changed clothes.

“Changed shirts, because that one was no good,” DiMarco quipped. “I went to black shoes instead of white and tan, changed my belt, changed my socks ...”

It seems hard to believe now that DiMarco stood at 13 under par with a four-shot lead over Woods when the back nine of third-round play, suspended Saturday night because of darkness, resumed Sunday morning.

It’s harder to fathom DiMarco’s losing that lead in 22 minutes -- the length of a television sitcom without the commercials.

Yet, DiMarco and Woods were tied at 11 under at roughly 5:20 a.m. Pacific Time.

It all happened so fast, and so early.

DiMarco started the back nine of his third round on the 10th tee. Woods was in the fairway at No. 10, getting to replace his muddied ball with a clean one because it was in play when play was suspended Saturday.

After a night, gulp, to sleep on it, DiMarco hit his tee shot, a two-iron, into the bushes and ended up with a double bogey.

Woods made birdies on 10 and 11 and, just like that, it was tied.

DiMarco had gone 44 holes without a bogey, then made four in nine holes.

Woods made seven birdies in a row, stretched over two days, en route to a seven-under 65.

He was three shots up on DiMarco before newspaper accounts of DiMarco’s sensational Saturday had hit driveways in the West. “Unshakeable” read the sub-headline describing DiMarco’s play in Sunday’s Augusta Chronicle.

Meanwhile, DiMarco was signing a scorecard of four-over 76, and trying to find the right outfit to track down Tiger.

DiMarco came close.

Not close enough.

Associated Press contributed to this report.

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TIGER WOODS BY THE NUMBERS

9

Major tournament victories,

tying him for third with

Ben Hogan and Gary Player, trailing Walter Hagen (11)

and Jack Nicklaus (18).

4

Masters championships

(1997, 2001, 2002, 2005), tying him for second with

Arnold Palmer, trailing

Jack Nicklaus (6).

8

Years between first and fourth victories. Arnold Palmer holds

record for fewest years between

at six; Nicklaus had nine years

between his first and fourth.

29

Age (29 years 3 months 11 days) when he won his fourth Masters;

Jack Nicklaus was 32 years 2 months 19 days; Arnold Palmer 34 years 7 months 2 days.

10

Majors played between victories, last winning the U.S. Open

on June 16, 2002. Last victory

in the Masters came on

April 14, 2002.