Woods delighted after 8th Bridgestone win

Top golfer eager to end title drought at PGA championship.

AKRON:

Tiger Woods won the Bridgestone Invitational for the eighth time on Sunday, immediately raising expectations he could end his major title drought at next week’s PGA Championship.

The final round at the Firestone Country Club was virtually a formality, and Woods made sure he didn’t put a foot wrong in his victory march.

In blustery conditions and with a seven-stroke lead going into the fourth round, Woods posted an even-par 70 that included one birdie, one bogey and 16 pars.

“Today I was just conservative, just tried to make pars,” said Woods, who had given himself a seven-stroke lead on Friday with a nine-under par second round of 61 and maintained his cushion on Saturday.



“I figured the highest score I could shoot today was going to be 70 and force the guys to have to shoot 63s and 62s,” said Woods. “I felt this was a perfect day to protect.”

With his eighth Bridgestone title, Woods matched the record for most victories at one event on the US PGA Tour that he shares with Sam Snead. Woods has also won the Arnold Palmer Invitational eight times.

He took his tally of US tour titles to 79, and, with his fifth title of the season, he ensured that he’ll go into the final major championship of the season at Oak Hill next week favored to add a 15th major to his resume.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve got three more days to get ready and I feel like my game is pretty consistent.”

Woods has won the Bridgestone and the PGA Championships in the same year three times — in 2000, 2006 and 2007.

Woods, chasing Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles, last won one of golf’s Grand Slam events at the 2008 US Open.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2013.

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