Tiger Woods’ unbeaten streak lives another day. Barring a big comeback, it’ll live for only one more day.
Geoff Ogilvy got to 17 under through nine holes and held a two-shot lead over Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh at the soggy CA Championship, which won’t finish until Monday because of a three-hour weather delay during the final round.
Furyk was 15 under through 10, Singh through nine. Retief Goosen and Graeme Storm were three shots back and Steve Stricker made a huge charge, shooting a final-round 63 to finish 13 under, four shots back of Ogilvy.
Play will resume Monday at 8:30 a.m., when most intrigue will be pointed toward someone who likely won’t win.
World Golf Championship events are some of Woods’ favorites, given his 15 wins in 26 previous WGCs entering this week. Somehow, at Doral, he’s looked mortal. He hasn’t lost to anyone in months, yet when play was halted, he was tied for ninth, trailing Ogilvy by five.
Ogilvy’s last win was the 2006 U.S. Open. Woods missed the cut that summer at Winged Foot and has been on an absolute tear ever since, winning 16 of his last 26 official PGA Tour events and carrying winning streaks of seven straight appearances worldwide and five tournaments on tour into this week’s stop at Doral, a track where he’s prevailed each of the past three years.
Unless he pulls off a stirring comeback, all those streaks will end, meaning he’ll be a winner in only nine of his past 11 events heading into the Masters.
For anyone else, that’s a superhuman clip. For Woods, it’s become practically expected.
Ogilvy’s bogey-free streak for the week ended after 60 holes, when he left a 35-foot par putt short on the seventh hole. Moments later, Woods had a two-putt birdie at the par-5 eighth hole, getting within four of Ogilvy—but gave that stroke back one hole later, making bogey after appearing to be distracted by a camera click as he teed off on the par-3 ninth.
The up-and-down trend plagued him all weekend.
Woods’ chances took a serious hit in the third round, when every other contender seemed to go on a birdie barrage while he remained stuck in the Doral mud. Singh and Storm each shot 63, Goosen and Furyk shot 64s, while Woods could only manage a third-round 72.
He gave the omnipresent throng of fans who followed him in the gallery much hope when he opened the final round with two birdies.
But he followed those with consecutive bogeys, one before the weather delay, one after at the long par-3 fourth hole. At that point, he trailed Ogilvy by six, and was a decidedly un-Tigerlike even par over his past 25 holes.
It sure didn’t look like much of a tuneup for Augusta National.
Third-round play was suspended Saturday after 3 inches of rain fell in a three-hour stretch of the afternoon, and the final round didn’t begin until shortly before noon Sunday. Final-round play was suspended for three hours because of lightning threats. By the time play could resume, there was only about 2 hours of daylight remaining, nowhere near enough time for everyone to finish.
Players had about a 2 1/2 -hour break before starting the final round Sunday, and with more storms in the forecast, some wondered why they weren’t on the course earlier.
“I think we were all asking the same question, exactly,” Furyk said. “I don’t know. It seems as though that would have been the safest way.”
Instead, most players will finish Monday, when Woods will need a huge charge.
“It can be had,” Woods said.
200 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 65 67 68
204 Vijay Singh (Fij) 73 68 63, Adam Scott (Aus) 67 68 69, Jim Furyk 69 71 64, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 71 69 64, Graeme Storm (Eng) 71 70 63
205 Tiger Woods 67 66 72, Anders Hansen (Den) 67 71 67
206 Tim Clark (Rsa) 71 69 66
207 KJ Choi (Kor) 70 70 67
208 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 70 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 70 70, Zach Johnson 69 72 67
209 Mike Weir (Can) 73 69 67, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 67 75 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 73 68 68
210 Robert Allenby (Aus) 69 75 66, Mark Calcavecchia 68 71 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 65 74 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 68 72 70, Gregory Havret (Fra) 68 74 68
211 Ross Fisher (Eng) 68 73 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 71 71, Stewart Cink 66 74 71, Phil Mickelson 67 74 70, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 72 70 69, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 73 69, Justin Rose (Eng) 70 71 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 69 70, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 72 68
212 Steve Stricker 71 68 73, John Rollins 74 71 67, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 73 71 68
213 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 74 70, Justin Leonard 69 74 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 72 71 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 68 72 73, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 68 73 72
214 Paul Casey (Eng) 72 75 67, Arron Oberholser 72 70 72, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 74 70, Boo Weekley 72 73 69, Nick Dougherty (Eng) 70 73 71, Woody Austin 70 70 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 68 73 73, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 70 70 74
215 Hunter Mahan 72 72 71, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 74 69, Ian Poulter (Eng) 71 72 72, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 74 73, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 74 73 68, Scott Verplank 71 70 74, Lee Westwood (Eng) 71 72 72, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 77 67
216 J.B. Holmes 69 72 75, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 74 72 70, Brandt Snedeker 74 70 72
217 James Kingston (Rsa) 74 75 68, Richard Green (Aus) 74 72 71, Brendan Jones (Aus) 76 75 66, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 75 74 68, Charles Howell III 69 76 72, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 72 73 72
218 Peter Hanson (Swe) 71 74 73, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 74 74 70
219 Colin Montgomerie (Sco) 75 74 70, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 74 74 71
220 Craig Parry (Aus) 73 75 72, Brett Wetterich 70 74 76, Jonathan Byrd 74 74 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 72 76
222 Soren Hansen (Den) 77 77 68, Ernie Els (Rsa) 74 75 73, D.J. Trahan 74 73 75
223 Mark Brown (Nzl) 73 74 76, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 76 72
224 Heath Slocum 74 72 78
225 Anton Haig (Rsa) 72 80 73
