Tiger Woods gave himself a perfect warm-up for next week's PGA
Championship by romping to an eight-shot victory at the
WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Sunday.
The world No 1, who has made a habit of peaking for the game's
biggest events, fired a five-under-par 65 at a wet Firestone
Country Club to clinch his 58th PGA Tour title.
"The whole idea was obviously to win this event but be playing
well going into next week," Woods told reporters after finishing at
eight-under 272, the only player in the 82-strong field under
par.
"I feel I made some nice strides this week and I feel very good
going into next week, getting a few days to prepare and getting
adjusted, and off we go."
Woods, who will defend his PGA Championship title at Southern
Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was encouraged by his ball-striking at
Firestone.
"Considering the way I hit the golf ball at the British Open
where I didn't really hit it all that well with my irons, this week
was a little bit better," the 12-times major champion added.
"I didn't putt as well as I did at the British, but I've gotten
everything kind of more organized, which is nice. I feel like I'm
in better shape heading into this one than I did going into the
British."
Woods, who tied for 12th in the British Open at Carnoustie, felt
Firestone's South Course also gave him the ideal test for next week
because of its major-like conditions.
"The golf course played so demanding this year," said the
31-year-old American, who has posted eight top-10 finishes in 12
starts on the 2007 PGA Tour, including four wins.
"We've never seen it this fast. We've never seen the greens this
hard and this fast.
"The rough was up high enough where if you hit the ball there,
you couldn't get to the green and, if you did get a good enough lie
to get to the green, there was no chance of stopping it.
"And then with the pin locations, it just made for just a very
difficult week. You just had to keep your patience. It felt like
this event was playing more like a major than anything else. You
just had to grind it out.
"Some years here you feel like you've got to make birdie, three
or four per nine, just to keep yourself in the tournament, but this
week that wasn't the case.
"You just had that feeling that it was set up more like a major
championship where just having a lot of pars - pars were probably
basically going to win the tournament."
The PGA Championship, the last of the year's four majors, starts
on Thursday.
(China Daily via Agencies August 7, 2007)
