Imperfect but unbowed, Tiger Woods looks ahead
GOLF / THE SPIN
Geoff Ogilvy's victory at Doral ends Woods' PGA Tour win streak at five. The difference came on the greens.
It's not much of a perfect season when it ends in March, but no one really expected Tiger Woods to win every tournament he played this year, did they? Sure, Woods did say it was his "intent" to win every week, but that's what you expect him to say when he shows up.
So when Geoff Ogilvy won and Woods was fifth today in the weather-delayed CA Championship at Doral, Woods' winning streak of five PGA Tour events came to an end.
"I had a shot at it; I just came up short," Woods said.
Woods' streak probably came to an end in the truncated third round, when he shot even-par 72 on a course he had pulverized the last three years.
Actually, there's one more place to look for Woods' demise -- on the greens. Woods missed nine putts inside 10 feet. Ogilvy missed just three -- making 61 of 64.
With the Masters next on his schedule, is that a good sign or a bad sign?
"I think it's a great sign, what happened this week, to make that many mistakes and only be two back," Woods said.
Woods' final-round 68 wasn't enough to catch Ogilvy, who finished with 11 straight pars.
Ogilvy, by the way, joined Sergio Garcia as the only players 30 or younger to have three victories in events that Woods played.
It was Woods' first defeat in eight events worldwide, dating back to the Deutsche Bank the first week of September, when he was second to Phil Mickelson.
Woods says he's moving on and planning ahead, streak or no streak.
"You want to always win every one you play in," he said. "So you've just got to get ready for the next one."
Strange but true
No one has won a PGA Tour event without making a bogey since Lee Trevino in 1974 at New Orleans.
Chatter
The first LPGA major of the year -- the $2-million Kraft Nabisco -- is coming up April 3-6, and it's caught the attention of Lorena Ochoa, who has five top 10s at Mission Hills the last six years.
Ochoa, who supplanted Annika Sorenstam as the world's top-ranked player 11 months ago, came closest to winning the Kraft in 2006 when she lost to Karrie Webb in a playoff. Ochoa won her only major, the British Open, last year at St. Andrews.
Ochoa said her mental approach and being in better shape were paying dividends.
"The better shape you have, the easier it is to finish strong," she said.
