Vijay Singh overcame a shaky putter on the back nine by making a 1m par putt on the 18th hole on Sunday to close with a two-under 68 for a one-shot victory in the Bridgestone Invitational.
Singh won his first World Golf Championship and ended an 0-for-34 drought on the PGA Tour that dated to the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March last year, his longest stretch without winning in six years.
But he had to work harder than he wanted. Singh missed four putts inside eight feet over the final 11 holes, but he made the ones that mattered. He made a four-footer for par on the 17th to stay in the lead, and his final putt swirled into the cup to avoid a play-off with Lee Westwood and Stuart Appleby.
Phil Mickelson had a one-shot lead until he had bogeys on three of his last four holes.
Singh, who had fallen out of the top 10 in the world during his drought, now is expected to move up to number four.
As shaky as Singh looked down the stretch, Mickelson was even worse.
Mickelson played bogey-free through the first 14 holes to build a one-shot lead, then threw it away by making three bogeys from the bunker on the final four holes to finish with a 70, two shots behind.
According to tour statistics, Singh was eight-of-18 on putts from four to eight feet during the tournament, and the last thing he wanted was to face another attempt. But he left his 30-foot birdie putt well short of the hole, and was relieved to see gravity pull it into the hole.
”I didn’t want to have a four-footer,” he said. ”I was kind of sweating it. But I’m glad it went in.”
Singh finished at 10-under 270 and earned $1,35-million for his first WGC title.
Westwood, who could have moved up to number four in the world with his first United States title in 10 years, rallied from a five-shot deficit with 11 holes to play to get within one of the lead. But he missed a seven-foot birdie on the 17th, and his 15-foot birdie putt from the fringe on the 18th to tie for the lead was left all the way.
An equally impressive rally belonged to Appleby, the only player to compete in all 29 of these WGC events since they began in 1999. He was seemingly out of the picture until a 30-foot birdie on the 16th, a three-foot birdie on the 17th and an 18-foot birdie attempt on the final hole that just stayed right of the cup.
”I had a putt for what I thought would get me into a play-off,” Appleby said. ”I hit the best putt I could have hit without it going in.” — Sapa-AP