JERSEY CITY, N.J.
(AP) -- Of all the players who missed putts on the 18th hole at Liberty
National, Adam Scott might have been the only one who felt like it
didn't matter.
His 15-foot putt grazed the right edge of the cup, and Scott walked away with a 5-under 66 that he considered little more than a good final round.
More than an hour later, it turned out to be a winner at The Barclays.
''I can't believe it, to be honest,'' Scott said after opening the FedEx Cup playoffs
with a one-shot win. ''I just played a good round today and I came in
and really didn't think it had a chance. But obviously, things went my
way a lot out there.
''I feel like I've been given a bit of a gift,'' he said, ''but I'll take it.''Even if Scott had made his birdie putt on the 18th, he figured he would be lucky to get into a playoff.
What followed was a parade of missed putts, ugly shots and Tiger Woods dropping to his knees just before he started dropping birdies.
''It was a good charge, but obviously I got a lot of luck, the guys
struggled coming in,'' Scott said. ''I've been in their position, too.
It's hard getting it done and I was playing from a position of nothing
to lose today.''
Justin Rose
had a 25-foot birdie putt to take the outright lead, gunned it 5 feet
by the hole, and missed the par putt to fall one shot behind. Kevin Chappell,
whose birdie on the 10th hole gave him a two-shot lead, played the next
seven holes in 7-over par, starting with a three-putt from 8 feet for
double bogey.
Woods had been battling lower back issues all week, which he
attributed to a soft bed in his hotel room. In a snapshot of the
collapses that unfolded over the last two hours, Woods said he had a
back spasm on the par-5 13th hole, and after his second shot with a
fairway metal was so far left that it went into a water hazard on the
other side of the 15th fairway, he dropped to all fours in pain and took
his time getting back on his feet.
Woods at least made it
interesting, as he often does. He birdied the 16th. He birdied the 17th
to get within one shot. He had a 25-foot putt off the back of the 18th
green to catch Scott,
and it looked good all the way until stopping one turn short. Woods
turned away in disbelief, the second time he has come up one shot short
at Liberty National.
That last hope came from Gary Woodland,
who chose driver off the 13th tee and hit it through the fairway and
into the water, leading to bogey. Woodland never caught up, missing
birdie putts inside 10 feet on his last three holes.
Rose, unlike Scott, knew exactly what his putt meant and wanted to be sure he gave it a good run.
''I got too aggressive,'' said Rose, who closed with a 68. ''I thought it was a putt to win the tournament. It's tough to take.''
