Sunday July 5th Final round

Huge crowds and perfect golf weather again at Bethesda.

The third round on Saturday was kind of strange for various reasons.

The guys at the top of the leader board were traiding shots,none of them making any progress in the right direction or taking advantage of Tiger Woods’ shaky start with bogeys at 1 and 6. Then the Tiger woke up and made the turn 3 shots ahead of the field after a birdie at 8 and an eagle at 9,just like that. That’it,I thought,he is going to make the difference today for a walk in the park on Sunday with a 4 or 5 shots cushion.Booooooring !! How wrong was I! Uncharacteristically Tiger relinquished his lead scoring an ugly double bogey at the 11th ,falling back at 1 over for the round, tied at 9 under with Pampling,Allen,Kim and Beckman until Anthony Kim birdied the par 5 16th to take the lead at 10 under.Woods didn’t do anything special on the last 7 holes,also getting to 10 under with birdie at 16. So Kim shot 68, the best round of the last two pairings,enough to tie Tiger who finished the day with 70.Pampling drop 1 shot,71,and Furyk had a 69;they both are 2 shots back at 8 under.

On the other hand the course was in perfect shape and good scores were posible as Michael Allen’s 65(best round of the day) and Cammeron Beckman’s 64 propelled them at 9 under par, 1 shot off Woods and Kim .Who are those guys?

The stage is set for a great Sunday at the Congressional Country Club with # 1 Woods and young star Kim starting the day last ,dead even and 1 shot ahead of the field.This is their first pairing ever.

No waste of time,Athony Kim draws first blood as he birdies the first hole for a 1 shot lead over Tiger.

Vijay Singh,5 under today,is at 7 under after 15 but is running out of holes to be able to threaten the leaders. Hunter Mahan makes the turn at 7 under,3 under for the front nine.

Cameron Beckman birdies the 4th to get to ¬10 under,1 off Kim and tied with Woods who both made par at the 4th . No signs yet of Anthony Kim backing down as he fires with his driver from all the tees.It is a battle between aggression and strategy.

Mahan birdies 10 to get to -8, and 18 years old Danny Lee joins him with a birdie of his own at 10,one group behind. Bogey at the 5th for Kim after an errand tee shot and we are back where we start ,Woods and Kim at -10 followed by Beckman,who dropped a shot at the 5th ,and Mahan who just birdied 12,at -9.

Hunter Mahan sinks a bomb on the 13th green and moves to -10 to tie the leaders.

Jim Furyk has dropped out of the picture after a bogey at 5 and a triple at the 6th where he got in the water on his 2nd shot.

Tiger birdies the 6th to take solo lead at-11 while Kim avoided a 2 shots swing after he was forced to lay-up following another bad drive.

Beckman is at -9, getting back at the 7th one of the 2 shots he dropped at 5 and 6.

Two great shots at the par three 7th from Woods and Kim. Kim misses the putt, Woods makes it and has a 2 shots lead.

Hunter Mahan drops one at 14th ao go to-9.

It looks more and more like it’s going down to a fight betwwen the King Tiger Woods and the Heir apparent anthony Kim.

Mahan says”wait a minute”and birdies 15 to tie Kim at -10.

A lip-out at 8 denies Tiger his 3rd birdie in a row but Kim 3 putts from 20 feet and his now 3 shots behind.

50 years old Michael Allen eagles the par 5 9th from the fairway to get back to -7 after dropping 5 shots on the 8 previous holes.

Kim goes to school on Tiger’s missed putt at the 9th and makes birdie to get within 2 at the turn. That’s fun!!

Mahan birdies 17,he is 1 stroke behind Tiger.SOOOOOOOOOOORY,at almost the same time Tiger sinks a long putt at the par 3 10th and goes to 13 under,2 shots ahead of Mahan and 3 of Kim.

Now Woods has to negotiate the par 4 11th,he’dropped 4 shots on this hole in the 3 previous rounds and his in trouble again from the tee.He actually has to take a penalty drop in the rough as his ball is unplayable in the hazard on the right. He manages to find the green on his 3rd shot,not an easy task at the most difficult hole on the course all week.2 putts for bogey back him up to -12, 5 shots lost in 4 rounds at the 11th.

Meanwhile Mahan birdies 18 for a 62, equalling Kim’s course record posted on Thursday and to get to 12 under par, tied with Tiger.

Fantastic round by Hunter Mahan on Sunday at the AT&T National, he will wait in the club house to see what Tiger and Kim will do.It is not a bad position to be in because by posting -12 so far ahead there is extra pressure on the other contenders who know they can not make a mistake.

Lucas Glover finished at -7 with a last round 70,in 5th place tied with Brandt Snedeker who shot a good 67.

The 11th hole must have rattled Tiger as he throws a 116 yards 2nd shot sand-wedge in the left bunker.However he saves par with an excellent bunker shot.Kim also makes par but he’s running out of holes and need to make a move very quickly,he is at -10, 2shots behind.

Bryce Molder shot 2 under par today,he is at -8,in 4th place alone at the moment.

Very important birdie putt at 15 for Kim,he misses and stays 2 behind the leaders.

Par 5 16th might make the difference. Woods and Kim are on it,Tiger in the left rough ,Kim on the fairway.Their second shots landed short on the right of the green.Tiger’s approach leaves him an 18 feet putt for birdie which he burries to take the lead at -13.This man will never cease to amaze me. Kim misses a 5 footer for his birdie and is probably done for the tournament as far as wiinning it.

Kim’s drive went left at 18th to hit square on the butt a bending over fan who never saw it coming.Great camera work and a lot of fun as the unfortunate spectateur was unharmed.

Two perfect tee-shots at 17 and 18 produced two routine pars for Tiger Woods who wins his own Tournament at the Congressinal Country Club with a 3 under par final round for a 13 under aggregate,1 stroke better than Hunter Mahan.

Anthony Kim suffered from the “Tiger Syndrome”,he bogeyed 18th to finish in 3rd place at -9.

Tiger will be back in two weeks at The Open in Scotland to compete in the third Major of 2009.

hat was a great week of golf , it is a pleasure to see the Master at work.

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