Show Woods Beats DiMarco in Masters Playoff Chris Dufresne The Los Angeles Times On a final day at the Masters that could have been musically back set to Sunrise Sunset because that's how long it lasted Tiger Woods made a foot 15 birdie putt at No 18 on the first playoff hole to defeat Chris DiMarco at Augusta National Golf Club Woods remember him He went 10 majors and almost three years between his eighth and ninth major championship championship championship champi champi- Dust Bowl his victory a drought by standards but you can now officially pencil the year old Woods back in his one-man one race toward golfing posterity Ive kind of battled the last couple of years to work hard on my game and make some changes Woods said It was nice to get back there again and be in contention with a chance to win coming up the back nine on Sunday Its It's a thrill His ninth major leaves him at the clubhouse turn in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus' Nicklaus professional professional professional major championship record of 18 I guess Im I'm halfway there Woods said A Along Along Along long way to go Woods' Woods nine majors tie him with Gary Player and Ben Hogan for second on the all- all time win list Only Walter Hagen with 11 majors stands between Woods and Nicklaus Woods won his fourth green jacket tying Arnold Palmer Only Nicklaus with six Masters' Masters titles has more The Masters bureau of statistics will record Woods and DiMarco finished tied at under 12 overall in regulation before returning to the hole for a sudden-death sudden playoff Woods shot a final round of under 1 71 to DiMarco's under 3 68 Twelve under is usually good enough to win DiMarco said I just was playing against Tiger Woods There were other players on course but Sundays Sunday's showdown essentially amounted to toa toa toa a two-man two play match-play event between Woods and DiMarco who played 28 holes under neck break-neck pres pressure ure DiMarco gave away a stroke four-stroke lead in 22 minutes in the morning and Woods later leaked away a shot four-shot lead of his own Woods is 9 0 in majors in which he has held the hole 54 lead but this was not the Woods who ransacked the field at the 1997 Masters Masters' or the Woods who ran roughshod at atthe atthe atthe the 2000 US U.S. Open Woods bobbled hobbled staggered and almost choked He won despite making bogey on his last two holes in regulation Anytime you ou can make him hiccup a little is I bit you know youre you're doing something right DiMarco said Imagine the backlash had Woods' Woods not prevailed prevailed prevailed pre pre- after his spectacular the shot-for-the-ages on the three par-three hole The one where Woods pitched a shot from rough and watched it crawl toward the hole and after a momentary pause trickle in It was one of my more creative shots Woods said That birdie gave Woods a two-shot two lead with two holes to play Woods though was so caught in his moment he almost forgot to fin fin- ish a aHe He whacked wayward his tee shot on the par par- par four four and made bogey to DiMarco's par reducing the lead to one Woods recovered on No 18 with a solid drive but flew his approach shot into the bunker and his chip from there left him a 10 footer for par DiMarco's third shot from just off the green hit the pin Had it dropped in he would have won the green jacket on a Woods' Woods bogey It didn't work out like that Woods putting for the win ran his shot passed the hole for bogey DiMarco getting a read off Woods Woods' putt made his par to force a playoff Woods didn't blow his hole over do-over striping a wood 3 off the tee and then planting ng his second shot on the green DiMarco's second attempt at mirrored his first His second shot came up short rolled back down the green and DiMarco executed a brilliant brilliant bril bril- up-and-down up for par This time par wa wasn't nt good enough Given a second chance Woods drained a birdie putt and punctuated victory with his vintage fist pump DiMarco will remember how the game might have tipped for him If you go back to two holes he said His c chip ip on 16 a and d my chip on 18 that had every every right to go 10 in the hole If those things are turned its it's the other way around Yet DiMarco and Woods were tied at 1 11 1 under at roughly am a.m. It all happened so fast and so early After a night gulp to sleep on it DiMarco DiMarco teed off on 10 but hit his shot S a iron 2 iron into the bushes and ended up with a double bogey b DiMarco had ey 44 gone holes holes' without bogey then made four in in nine holes u a j. j Woods made seven consecutive birdies See Masters S continued on page 1 10 d f h Ih I 1 Masters continued from page 8 stretched over two days en route to a under seven-under 65 He was three shots up on DiMarco before newspaper accounts of DiMarco's sensational sensational sensational sen sen- sen- sen Saturday had hit driveways in the West Unshakeable read the sub-headline sub describing DiMarco's play in Sundays Sunday's Augusta Chronicle Meanwhile DiMarco was signing a scorecard of over 4 76 and trying to track down Tiger DiMarco came close Not Not close enough i 1 c 4 |