In the Bag: Tiger Woods
Nike Method 001 putter sends Woods back to World No.1
Tiger Woods may have spent a large chunk of Monday afternoon with a comfortable lead under his belt, yet his record eighth PGA Tour win at Bay Hill was more of a grind than at Doral earlier this month.
The new World No.1, who moves to within five PGA Tour victories of record holder Sam Snead, struggled all week off the tee - ranking 75th out of the 76 players who made the cut in driving accuracy - and finishe in the bottom 10% of greens in regulation .
But as we've already come to see this season, Woods appears unconscious with the putter just he was in his prime.
The 77-time PGA Tour champ was consistently draining putts for birdies and making clutch par saves at Bay Hill, holing 19 putts from outside eight-feet all week - beating his previous best of 17 at the 2004 WGC-Cadillac Championship.
In fact, he didn’t hit a bad putt until the 13th hole of the final round, when he left his first effort seven-feet short and low. But he proceeded to roll the second putt in the centre of the cup like it was a gimme. His confidence with the putter is reminiscent of the days when he made every important putt.
Woods' former swing coach Hank Haney was also impressed, taking to Twitter during the final round coverage to say: ‘The start to this year is the best Tiger has ever putted in his career, he's clearly unstoppable when he is #1 in putting.’
In the Bag: Tiger Woods
Driver: Nike VR Tour (8.5-degree; Graphite Design Tour AD DI 6 X-flex)
Fairway woods: Nike VR Pro Limited Edition 3-wood (15-degree; Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 103 X-flex) and Nike VR_S Covert 5-wood (19-degree; Mitsubishi Diamana Blue Board 103 X-flex)
Irons: Nike VR Pro Blade (3-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold X100)
Wedges: Nike VR Pro (56- and 60-degree; True Temper Dynamic Gold S400)
Putter: Nike Method 001
Ball: Nike ONE Tour D
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