Planet Golf — 12 May 2013 by GW staff and news services
Tiger’s fourth 2013 win: The Players

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods survived a double bogey on the back nine to win The Players Championship for the second time.

Woods finished at 13 under, two strokes ahead of David Lingmerth, Jeff Maggert and Kevin Streelman.

Tiger’s previous Players win came in 2001. Since then, he posted just one top-10 finish in his next 10 starts at TPC Sawgrass until winning on Sunday.

He becomes the fifth player to win twice at TPC Sawgrass, joining Steve Elkington, Hal Sutton, Fred Couples and Davis Love III. Love was the last player to achieve the feat, winning for the second time in 2003.

Woods, winning for the fourth time this year, extended his FedExCup points lead over Brandt Snedeker to 866 points. The win is the 78th of his PGA Tour career and comes in his 300th start. Woods also won tournaments on his 100th and 200th start.

This is also the earliest in a single season that Woods has won four Tour events.

Woods was in control of the tournament early on the back nine. He held a two-shot lead going to the 14th tee, but found the water with his drive and suffered a double bogey.

By the time he walked off the 14th green, he was tied with Sergio Garcia, David Lingmerth and Jeff Maggert for the lead at 12 under.

“Just hit absolutely the worst shot I could possibly hit,” Woods said. “But it was the only bad swing I made all day. I told myself I could still win the tournament.”

Maggert fell off the pace with a double bogey at the 17th when he found the water. Lingmerth suffered a bogey at the 14th.

That left Woods tied with Garcia at 13 under after Garcia birdied the par-5 16th.

But Garcia hit two shots in the water at the 17th island hole, resulting in a quadruple bogey. He also double bogeyed the 18th after finding the water.

Lingmerth, trailing by one, had the last shot to force a playoff after a terrific tee shot at the 17th. But he failed to convert the putt.

Tournament Notes:

Tiger Woods

Earns his 78th career PGA Tour victory at the age of 37 years, 4 months and 12 days in his 286th professional start on Tour (300thoverall).

— All-time PGA victories: 1) Sam Snead – 82; won 78th (1958 Dallas Open Invitational) at the age of 46 years, 12 days; 2) Tiger Woods – 78; won 78th (The Players 2013) at age of 37 years, 4 months and 12 days.

— Earns 600 FedExCup points to stay at No. 1 in the FedExCup standings with 2,340 points.

— Earliest Woods has earned four PGA Tour wins in a season. In 2000 and 2001, Woods won fourth event at the Memorial Tournament.

— The 2013 PGA Tour tournament summary: Starts: 7; in money: 7; victories: 4; top-10 finishes: 5

— Woods has posted 22 of 24 stroke-play rounds at par-or-better in 2013 on TOUR (R4/Honda Classic and R2/Masters).

— Joins Jack Nicklaus (1974, 1976, 1978), Steve Elkington (1991, 1997), Hal Sutton (1983, 2000), Fred Couples (1984, 1996) and Davis Love III (1992, 2003) as multiple winners in the 40-year history of The Players.

— The 13-under-par 275 total is identical to last two champions’ scores (K.J. Choi-2011 and Matt Kuchar-2012).

— Marks first time Woods had four rounds of par or better at The Players since 2003.

— Along with Jack Nicklaus, only player with two or more wins at The Players, Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.

— Made his 16th start at The Players. In addition to his two wins, Woods has top-10 finishes in 1999 (T10), 2000 (2) and 2009 (8).

— Wins second Players title 12 years, 1 month and 16 days after his 2001 victory at TPC Sawgrass.

— Wins fourth time in a season for the 12th time in his PGA Tour career. For comparisons, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus both won four or more times nine times.

— Claims seventh victory in last 22 starts on Tour (31.8 percent).

— Has won 78 out of 286 (27 percent) professional starts.

— Wins for the 16th time in the state of Florida, which is the most of any state.

— Has now converted 52 of 56 third-round leads/co-leads in 72-hole PGA Tour events. Has converted his last six third-round leads. The 56 events does not include 54-hole sudden-death playoff victory over Tom Lehman at the 1999 Mercedes Championships.

David Lingmerth

— Rookie Lingmerth, playing for the 13thtime in his PGA Tour career, set a new mark for the best finish by a PGA Tour rookie at The Players. The previous best was T3 by both Fulton Allem in 1988 and Camilo Villegas in 2003.

— In two events, a T2 at the Humana Challenge and a T3 at The Players, David Lingmerth has earned  475 of his 549 FedExCup points this season. Lingmerth is 31st in the FedExCup standings. In his other 11 starts this year, he has earned 74 points.

— Lingmerth’s bogey on the closing hole that dropped him to a three-way tie for second cost him $316,667 and 100 FedExCup points.

— Craig Perks (2002) and Tim Clark (2010) remain the only two players who have made The Players their first PGA Tour victory.  Jack Nicklaus (1974), Hal Sutton (1983) and Craig Perks (2002) are the only three players to win in their first appearance at the event (1974 was the first year of the tournament).

— Adam Scott recorded the fewest PGA Tour starts (41) before winning The Players in 2004.

— His runner-up at the Humana Challenge came after losing a three-man playoff to Brian Gay that also included Charles Howell III. Lingmerth entered the final round T15 and shot a 62 in the final round to get in the playoff.

— Coming into the week, Lingmerth had missed eight of his last 10 cuts with T51 and T50, his other two finishes.

Sergio Garcia

— Garcia came to the 17th tee tied for the lead with Tiger Woods. After his tee shot found water, he dropped from the same tee and found water again, ultimately carding a 7 on the hole. The 4-over-par quadruple bogey is the highest score of Garcia’s career on the 17th hole, having played the hole 52 previous times. Three times he has scored a triple-bogey on the hole (Round 3/2011, Round 4/2005, Round 1/2000).

— In eight events in 2013, Sergio Garcia has four top-10 finishes. He withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational but finished in the top 20 in all his other seven starts. Garcia’s fourth top-10 finish this year is the most top-10s in a season for Garcia since 2008.

— Garcia has made 10 consecutive cuts at The Players and 12 of 14 overall. The 10 straight is the longest active cut streak. The tournament’s all-time leading money winner, Garcia has never shot three rounds in the 60s at one event at The Players.

— This week marks Garcia’s ninth 54-hole lead/co-lead of his career.  Of the previous eight, he had converted three into victory, most recently at the 2012 Wyndham Championship, his most recent of his eight PGA Tour wins (also the 2001 Travelers Championship and 2004 HP Byron Nelson Championship).

Jeff Maggert

— At 49 years, 2 months and 22 days old, Maggert shot a final-round 2-under par 70 and finished T2. Maggert was trying to eclipse Fred Funk (48 years, 9 months, 14 days) as the oldest winner in tournament history.

— Since the Tour began tracking balls in the water on the 17th hole, Maggert had only hit one tee shot in the water (Round 1/2002). That was also the last time he scored a double-bogey or worse on the hole.

Kevin Streelman

— Streelman matched Martin Laird and Jimmy Walker with the round of the day with a final-round 67 putting Streelman in a three-way tie for second. The finish moves Streelman to No. 3 in the FedExCup standings.

— With his T2 finish at The Players, Streelman now has three consecutive top-10 finishes (T3 at RBC Heritage and T6 at the Wells Fargo Championship).

— Streelman moved from 20th to 12th in the United States Presidents Cup standings with his T2 finish at The Players.

Tournament Notes:

— Brandt Snedeker’s T8 finish gives him a Tour-leading six top-10 finishes in 2013 and he maintains his No. 2 position in the FedExCup.

— Multiple winners at The Players: 3, Jack Nicklaus, 1974, 1976 and 1978; 2, Steve Elkington, 1991 and 1997; Hal Sutton, 1983 and 2000; Fred Couples, 1984 and 1996; Davis Love III, 1992 and 2003; Tiger Woods, 2001 and 2013.

— Martin Laird led the field in Strokes Gained – Putting this week (2.052).

— Matt Every (79.17) led the field in Greens in Regulation this week.

— The third-round leader/co-leader has won The Players 17 of 39 times.

— The third-round leader/co-leader has gone on to win 10 of 18 times this season, most recently Tiger Woods at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

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