Tiger Woods Wins Again

Bart Bryant stood in the fairway trying to decide how to approach the green on the par-4 18^th at Bay Hill.  A large lake lined the right side of the green and the pin was placed in a difficult right-side location.

Tiger Woods was waiting on the 18^th tee, tied with Bryant at nine under par.

Bryant made the smart decision. He hit his approach shot to the center of the green and two-putted for par.

Under normal circumstances, Bryant's decision would have undoubtedly forced a playoff. With windy conditions on an extremely tough hole, a birdie was highly unlikely.

But, this particular situation was anything but normal as Bryant was being chased by Tiger Woods.

Woods hit his drive down the left side of the fairway, leaving himself in the perfect position to hit a fade towards the pin.

As Woods prepared for his shot, the winds picked up more than they had all day making a birdie look increasingly unlikely.

Woods managed to hit the perfect approach shot. He played a slight left-to-right fade, avoiding any flirtation with the water. His ball ended up about 20 feet from the hole, giving Woods a difficult down hill left-to-right putt.

With Arnold Palmer, the tournament's host, looking on from the side of the green and Bart Bryant anxiously watching the television in the scorers' tent, Tiger Woods managed to sink the longest putt he had made all afternoon to win his fifth straight tournament.

Palmer and Bryant responded to Woods' putt in the only way possible—they shook their heads and laughed.

Bryant had made the smart play on the 18^th, but as he said in a post-tournament interview, "That's why he's Tiger Woods. 

He has an incredible way of pulling off the shot or the putt when he needs to. He's done it before. He'll do it again."

Although Woods has only won five tournaments in a row, six short of Byron Nelson's record of 11 straight tour victories, whispers have already begun about Tiger's chances of breaking Nelson's record.

It is probably premature, some might even say outrageous, to even begin thinking about Woods breaking Nelson's record. But, we are talking about a man—Tiger Woods—who by all appearances looks as if he is going to continue to win every tournament he plays in.

Even though Woods is playing as well as he's ever played in his career, it is unlikely that he will break Nelson's record of 11 straight victories. But then again, Woods continues to defy the odds, just as he did this afternoon by birdying the 18^th hole to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational.