Tiger Woods notched up his 71st PGA Tour win in the BMW Championship at Cog Hill, cruising to an eight shot victory over Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman.
Tiger did the damage on Saturday with a course record 62 that gave him a seven shot advantage going into the final round. The World Number 1 showed no sign of relinquishing his lead as he breezed round Cog Hill in three-under-par 68 to win by an eight shot margin.
The victory ends a frustrating run for Woods after he narrowly lost out at both the USPGA Championship and The Barclays.
“To play as well as I have of late and not get the Ws has been a little bit frustrating, no doubt, because I've been so close,” Woods said. “It's just been a matter of making a couple of putts here and there, and I would have won the tournaments. And lo and behold, boom! I hit the ball just as well, just as consistent this week, and I made a few putts. And that's how it happens.”
With the victory, Woods re-took the lead in the FedEx Cup and will be strong favourite to win the $10 million first prize at the Tour Championship next week.
Behind Woods another battle was going on as players scrambled to make it into the top-30 on the FedEx Cup rankings to move on to the final playoff event at East Lake.
Brandt Snedeker was in line to capture the 30th spot and needed only a bogey on the final hole to secure his place in the Tour Championship. He narrowly missed his par effort on the 18th green then lipped out for bogey from three feet. In shock, he then took two more putts to get down and made a triple bogey. That gifted the final qualifying position to Australia’s John Senden.
“I can’t believe I did this,” said Snedeker. “ I just made a mess of it.”
Finishing in a tie for second place, Jim Furyk climbed to third on the FedEx Cup rankings and can now win the $10 million pot if he is victorious at East Lake.
Despite ending the week in a tie for sixth, Sergio Garcia did not too enough to make it into the top-30.
BMW Championship Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, Illinois Sep 10-13, purse $7,500,000, par 71
1 Tiger Woods (USA) 68 67 62 68 265 $1,350,000 T2 Jim Furyk (USA) 70 70 67 66 273 $660,000 T2 Marc Leishman (Aus) 67 69 68 69 273 $660,000 4 Sean O’Hair (USA) 70 68 70 66 274 $360,000 5 Zach Johnson (USA) 73 65 70 68 276 $300,000 T6 Sergio Garcia (Esp) 71 68 68 71 278 $260,625 T6 Padraig Harrington (Ire) 68 68 69 73 278 $260,625 T8 Kevin Na (USA) 72 72 65 70 279 $225,000 T8 Camilo Villegas (Col) 68 74 71 66 279 $225,000
Player scores listed in bold signifies Titleist ball usage only
Where next?
European Tour: James Kingston wins Mercedes-Benz Championship
