Tiger Woods Notches 70th Career Victory at Firestone with a Memorable Shot

Tiger was on the prowl at Firestone, proving that competition, in the form of Padraig Harrington, is more a formality than a focusing point.

Tiger is just too darn amazing for anyone to really challenge him.

As Sunday wore on, the scores at the top of the leaderboard tightened up.

At the turn, Tiger was up two strokes.  After number twelve, Harrington and Woods were tied.  

Tiger lost some ground on the 14th, falling a stroke behind Harrington.  It looked as though the tournament would come down to the final hole.

Then, as Harrington approached the tee on 16, leading this era's greatest golfer, likely the greatest golfer this world has ever seen, the pressure got to Harrington.

Harrington sprayed his tee shot into trees off the right side of the fairway. Tiger followed suit, yanking his drive into the left-hand rough.  

Woods punched out into the fairway, around 170 yards from the hole. Harrington laid up too.

But his fate was sealed when Woods struck his third shot.

Tiger floated an eight iron over water, landing it five feet from the cup before the shot backed up, in classic Woods style, to four inches from the hole.

Tiger strode confidently to the green and Harrington gulped loudly.

Padraig fell apart mentally; he knew he had to go for the pin from the lip of a bunker, and flew the green into some nasty rough. He quickly approached his ball, took some rushed practice swings, and one-hopped his chip across the green and into the pond.

Harrington’s hopes were as sunk as his little ball.

He knew it, Tiger knew it, the whole world knew it.

Harrington finished the hole with a snowman eight while Tiger birdied, taking a three stroke lead to 17.

Everything that followed was a formality, as Tiger lost another stroke to finish with at 12 under for a four-stroke win.

This is not just another win though.

There is much weight to some lofty numbers he leaves Firestone CC with.

This was the seventh time Tiger has won at Firestone, which makes him the only player in history to accomplish the feat, although Sam Snead won eight times at the "Greater Greensboro Open." 

Also, Tiger notched his 70th win, a large milestone in a career full of them. To put it in perspective of how dominant Tiger has been, Sam Sneed was 41 and Jack Nicklaus was 40 when they won their 70th tournament—Tiger is only 33.

Next week's PGA Championship could bring another major milestone also, as if he were to win, Tiger would tie Walter Hagen and Nicklaus with five wins a piece of the major tournament.

As Woods took home his seventh trophy from Firestone in ten years, it was evident that the fire to win still burns intensely inside this Tiger.