Weekend Warrior

There appeared to be no chance that suspense would become a fourth in the final threesome at Sunday's BMW Championship, yet suspense found a way. Naturally, this sudden anxiety had nothing to do with Tiger Woods, who amassed a seven-shot lead with Saturday's succulent 62 at Cog Hill G&CC. He could have achieved his fifth career victory on the Dubsdread course and sixth this season on one leg. But he's already been there and done that at the 2008 U.S. Open, so the world's No. 1 golfer opted to celebrate a healthy 2009 in a walkover so resounding it left the rest of the field limping.

"To be as consistent as I have been this year, I'm very proud of that," said Woods, who finished with a 68 for 19-under 265, eight fewer than Jim Furyk and Marc Leishman. "Absolutely, it's one of my best years. There were so many uncertainties at the beginning of the season. What kind of shots could I play? How was my recovery going to be from day-to-day? Am I going to hurt again? Am I going to stretch the graft? To come back and be, as I said, this consistent feels pretty good. I had an opportunity to win just about every tournament I played in."

With his 71st title at age 33, Woods vaulted to the top of the FedEx Cup playoff points derby that will be settled at the fourth postseason event, the Tour Championship. Steve Stricker, Furyk, Zach Johnson and Heath Slocum round out the top five. It's what happened at the bottom of the list that had to be seen to be bereaved. After John Senden, in Sunday's second-to-last group, doubled the 17th hole, he dropped out of the surviving 30 who shall joust in Atlanta. But then he re-entered the equation and secured the final spot when Brandt Snedeker, playing beside Woods and Leishman, tripled No. 18 by four-putting from 13 feet. Snedeker toppled to 33rd, joining casualties such as Ian Poulter, Anthony Kim, Sergio Garcia, Justin Leonard and Camilo Villegas with a thud that even shook Tiger.

"You feel bad for him," said Woods, who otherwise extended few regrets over four days to fellow competitors; Rees Jones, the architect commissioned to refresh the storied public layout; or Cog Hill owner Frank Jemsek, who fervently wishes to be awarded a U.S. Open. Tiger didn't know exactly what to expect from the "new" Dubsdread, but he assimilated the alterations like the scholar-athlete he is. Woods' next bogey on the back nine of the updated design will be his first, and if the infant greens he described as somewhat "spongy" weren't quite ready for showtime, he was ready for them. Whatever domestic problems existed between Woods and his short stick during, say, the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, were resolved in Chicago, one of his favorite playpens.

"I didn't change anything," said Tiger of his putter or putting. "I was hitting a lot of lips. They just weren't going in. I kept telling myself through those stretches, I was hitting good putts, they just didn't go in. You read the putts better, eventually they'll start going in."

Sometimes when they go in from 14 feet, as one did on No. 9 Sunday for birdie, it can appear in Monday's newspaper to be ho-hum. In reality, Woods' route to the cup was rather bizarre. His tee shot sailed right, so far right toward a refreshment area that it just missed a barbeque in regulation. Woods then exited by nailing a 3-iron through the forest, the ball settling near trees on the other side of the fairway. From there, he curled a 9-iron in some kind of funky 105-yard bump-and-run hook pattern to just beyond the hole. His 4 on the 615-yard par 5 was labeled "science fiction" by a security officer who also witnessed Woods' eagle there Saturday, when two mighty blows to the green traveled straight as a string.

What an afternoon that was. Tiger bogeyed No. 1, then apparently became angry enough to collect a bunch of circles thereafter for his 62, a Dubsdread record, past or present.

Some of Woods' amazing swings did not even beget birdies. At No. 7, from behind tall and leafy shrubbery, he cut a 6-iron from 188 yards not only to an elevated green, but to the upper tier on which the flagstick stood. "That was pretty sweet," observed Woods. ("No," corrected caddie Steve Williams, "that was unbelievable.") On No. 12, a beastly par 3, he lofted a 4-iron through a breeze toward a wicked pin placement and the pelota landed like so many of his 200-yard missiles—as if they sprout wings, or a parachute.

"I shoot what I feel is a decent round, 71, and next to Tiger, the way he's controlling his ball and putting, it can feel like 80," said Mark Wilson, a Chicago-area resident who plays Cog Hill often, studies under Dr. Jim Suttie at the back barn and briefly snagged a third-round lead until Woods binged.

Stricker, who began the BMW as the leader of the FedEx Cup parade, shot 72 beside Woods (68) and Slocum (70) Thursday while looking a bit fatigued. It's been a haul lately, guys are tired and encouraged that next year's schedule might feature two weeks of playoffs, a week off, then two more playoffs. Anyway, Stricker could have excused himself for the evening, but instead attended a gala dinner to honor Don Johnson, the retiring president and CEO of the Western GA. Johnson and Stricker go way back to their days in Cheeseland. Stricker stayed from beginning to end, humbly introducing himself ("Hi, I'm Steve") despite needing no introduction. Stricker shot 73 Friday, after Johnson noticed him yawning Friday morning around the locker room. Stricker probably needed sleep instead of dessert Thursday night, but as Johnson noted, "He's a special person ... that's why everybody in golf from