Tiger Woods going for six straight PGA Tour wins
GOLF
Doral is the next stop on the golfer's history-making tour, where incomparable expectations are the rule.
Of course, Tiger Woods can't win every tournament he plays; it's just that he's making it look that way.
It was probably about the time his ball scooted across the 18th green at Bay Hill on Sunday, felt the tug of gravity and dived into the hole, when everyone started figuring out what's next.
As in, what's next after five consecutive PGA Tour victories? Well, how about six consecutive?
This is a heady time in the wildly spinning sphere of professional golf, where Woods is picking up speed as he continues one of the most dominant streaks ever.
It's history in the making, and Woods is making it fast.
This week, Woods and those who chase him on the PGA Tour have traveled down the Florida Turnpike from the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando to the CA Championship at Doral. That's where Woods once again puts his winning streak on the line, along with his mind-bending flair for hitting just the right dramatic high spots.
Woods is the favorite, as usual, even though the CA Championship is an $8-million World Golf Championship tournament loaded with only the top players from the world-ranking list.
There are a few reasons why he stands out. The first is that Woods has won at Doral the last three years; the second is that he dominates WGC events (winning 15 of the 26 he has played); and the third is that nobody seems to have a clue how to beat him.
Even so, it appeared that it wasn't going to be Woods' week at Bay Hill, at least for a while.
He caved in the face of his driver in his pro-am round Wednesday. He couldn't get his long putts into the hole without a court order. He was seven shots behind after two rounds.
When you swing as hard as Woods does, at roughly the same speed as a turbine engine, it doesn't leave much of a margin between finding the fairway or the rough. Getting a new driver in Woods' hands was key. And then there is his work on the greens.
Woods hadn't made a putt all week that measured more than 18 feet in length . . . until his last putt on the last hole of the last day of the tournament.
Woods made his 24-footer, ripped his cap from his head and hurled it onto the tightly mown grass, celebrating a one-shot victory over Bart Bryant, who was waiting in the scorer's area. He could tell from the screams of the crowd that professional golf's watch still ticks to Tiger Time.
Johnny Miller watched the Woods show from the NBC tower. "The guy's not even human," he said.
