His Kind Of Town

Tiger Woods reclaims the FedEx lead with his 60th PGA Tour title -- a record-breaking BMW victory at Cog Hill

Woods' brilliance drew a crowd on Saturday after a tepid turnout for the first two rounds.

By Bob Verdi

Photos: J.D. Cuban

September 14, 2007

They can change the date, the sponsor, the era and the designation of the tournament as it pertains to history, real or manufactured. But there remains one inalienable truth: Tiger Woods is to Chicago golf what the Kenyans are to the Boston Marathon. With a splendid eight-under-par 63, the world's No. 1 player captured the inaugural BMW Championship Sunday at Cog Hill G&CC, where Woods won three previous renditions of the Western Open, may it rest in pieces. Add two PGA Championships at Medinah, and that means six of Tiger's 60 PGA Tour titles have occured in his kind of toddlin' town.

Woods, so close now to fulfilling a childhood fantasy, has vaulted to the top of the points derby after three FedEx Cup events as the playoff series now moves to its Tour Championship conclusion at East Lake CC in Atlanta, where survivors in the chase for a $10 million bonanza will discover a new definition of paydirt when they putt those greens. Whatever the conditions, it would not surprise at least two fellow competitors if Woods finds the best solution. He always seems to have what it takes, as co-leaders Aaron Baddeley and Steve Stricker relearned upon arriving at the 12th tee during the sunsplashed final round.

Although crafting a four-under 31 on the front side, Woods angrily missed making birdie on No. 11 and even he supposed he might perish in a communal shootout on a course so frequented by rains that lift-clean-and-place measures for 36 holes were invoked even before the first ball went airborne Thursday. Anyway, as Baddeley and Stricker in the closing twosome waited to hit on the par 3, they watched as Woods stood over a 45-footer that meandered as if on a string toward the cup until it disappeared. Birdie. Tie game.

"From him, you expect the unexpected," sighed Baddeley after his 66 to take second, two shots behind. "Wasn't anything I hadn't seen before," added Stricker, whose 68 meant a comfortable third. "I played with him the first two days, for the first time in years, and it's true. It's not just talk. He really does have another gear. He's fun to play with, he likes to jab back and forth, he has got a tremendous sense of humor. But when he needs to get it done, he does it better than anybody." Stricker quipped that after Woods dropped that bomb, he looked back at the tee to "make sure we were watching." Tiger flatly denied the allegation. "No, I didn't do a Sergio," claimed Woods, who received a long-distance message from Garcia during the 1999 PGA Championship.

Woods followed that bit of theater Sunday with birdie at the difficult 13th, added another at the defenseless 15th, then pretty much freed fans to head home for the Bears' telecast with his eighth birdie at No. 16. His 22-under 262 shattered the venerable Western/BMW 72-hole aggregate record (Baddeley and Stricker also broke it), and Chicagoans loved every moment of brilliance. After a slow start, they showed up in droves on the weekend (90,000 total was the announced number), and it took Woods' fairways-and-greens proficiency to assuage participating moguls from BMW, the tour and Western GA after ominous premables such as Phil Mickelson's withdrawal and Ernie Els' supposition that players and the commissioner in golf's biggest league are growing apart.

Woods has frequently expressed puzzlement at the decision to abandon Chicago on alternate years, and when quizzed about the wonders of the FedEx Cup, he does not quite light up as he would when talking about, say, baby daughter Sam Alexis. He skipped the first playoff leg in New York but professes to be fresh for Atlanta, where he eagerly anticipates again playing with "Stricks," his buddy who went to the University of Illinois with Mark Steinberg, now Woods' super agent. The friendship is deeper than that, though. "Steve has got to be the nicest guy out here," said Tiger. "He should win Comeback of the Year again this year. We had a blast this week. This tournament is very special to me. This city is special to me. Even when MJ [Michael Jordan] isn't around. I got an exemption to play here as an amateur. This course fits my eye. I'm gonna miss it."