Tiger Woods on Sunday retained his Accenture Match Play Championship title with
victory over Davis Love in California.
Woods twice trailed his Ryder Cup team-mate by two holes but won three in a
row in the afternoon round on his way to a 3&2 win in the 36-hole final at La
Costa.
But the match was marred by heckling from a spectator towards Love, who
admitted he was ready to stop playing until the offender was ejected.
"It definitely affected me because he did it when I was preparing to hit
shots," said Love.
"He was not here to watch golf and once we narrowed it down where he was we
got rid of him.
"I was not going to play any more (until he was ejected) because he had
already cost me one hole. The second hole this afternoon I hit an awful shot
because he rattled me and I was not going to put up with it. You don't have to
like me or pull for me, just respect me enough to let me play."
Love lost the second hole this afternoon to be pegged back to all square, and
never won another hole after that as Woods took charge with three holes in a row
from the seventh.
The 1.2 million US dollars first prize took Woods' earnings from World Golf
Championship (WGC) events to more than 10 million US dollars. The world number
one has now won nine of the 16 WGC events he has entered since their inception
in 1999.
He is the only player to win all four of the WGC's annual events, having
completed the clean sweep here 12 months ago. Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke,
the winner in 2000 and 2003 NEC Invitational champion, is the only other player
to have won more than one WGC title.
It was Woods' third final in five appearances in the event, and his record now
reads played 23, won 20, lost three.
Woods said: "It was tough. Davis played a good solid match today. I was not
striking the ball that well, especially off the tee, but I hung in there and
made a lot of putts which either kept the momentum or turned it to me.
"I was in quite a few places where I was in trouble but the putter is the
great equaliser and it proved it today."
In the play-off for third and fourth place, Clarke completed an excellent
week's work with a two-hole victory over Australia's Stephen Leaney.
Clarke, who blew a two-hole lead with two to play against Love in Saturday's
semi-finals, was two down with six to play but birdied the 13th and 16th on his
way to victory.
The Ulsterman therefore took home a cheque for 530,000 US dollars and with it
a likely place in the top 10 of the world rankings, while Leaney had the
consolation of 430,000 US dollars for his efforts.
Love looked like taking a handy lead after the morning round but Woods
crucially birdied the final hole, smashing a drive and long iron onto the
558-yard par five, to go into lunch just one down.
In fact, Woods had little time for lunch as he headed for the practice range
to try and sort out his errant driving, and although he was still occasionally
wayward from the tee, his iron play eventually put him in a commanding
position.
A bogey from Love on the 20th hole - where he was distracted by heckling from
the gallery - allowed Woods back on level terms, and the world number one went
in front for the first time with a stunning birdie on the seventh.
Another poor drive left him almost in the same spot as during the morning
round, but this time he was far enough away from the trees to have a shot to the
green and blasted an amazing recovery to 12 feet and holed the putt for birdie.
That took him into the lead for the first time in the match and he went two
ahead on the next with another birdie from four feet.
A par four was good enough to win the ninth and make it three holes in a row,
and at three up with nine to play Woods was in complete command.
It had not been a vintage performance from Woods however, who made a mess of
the very first hole and was two down after 10 and 17 holes of the morning
round.
Love had been the first person all week to reach the par-five 18th in two in
his semi-final win over Clarke, but Woods reduced the 558-yard hole to a drive
and long iron to set up his fifth birdie of the round.
Love was unable to match it after finding a greenside bunker with his
approach, his seven-foot birdie attempt sliding past the hole.
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