• Farmers Insurance Open, Round Four

Tiger wins despite late wobble

ESPN staff
January 28, 2013

Farmers Insurance Open leaderboard

Tiger Woods collected his 75th PGA Tour trophy at the Farmers Insurance Open in California but he staggered rather than bounded towards victory on the final day.

Woods woke up on Monday with just 11 holes to go after playing almost a round-and-a-half on Sunday but he could not carry his form into the new week.

Saturday featured almost no play at Torrey Pines because of heavy fog but it did not prevent the world No. 2 from claiming an eighth victory on the course; his ledger reads seven Farmers Insurance Open titles and one US Open which he won in 2008.

The start to his final round on Sunday night saw him hit three birdies in seven holes to carry a six-stroke lead into Monday. And he had extended that lead to seven shots by the 13th hole.

Yet then the 37-year-old undid his work over the next two holes by carding a bogey followed by a double bogey. He parred the 16th but slipped to another bogey on the penultimate hole to leave him with a, still healthy, four-shot margin of victory over Brandt Snedeker and Josh Teater tied in second.

If there was cause for worry from Woods' final day's play - or reason for optimism for his rivals - it was that his driving finally showed some chinks. Miscued tee-offs at the ninth and at the 15th were at odds with the majority of his first three days' work and the 14-time major winner will want to eradicate such blips before the Masters in April.

Snedeker was the defending champion and finished on 10-under overall after a final round of 69. After round one he held a share of the lead owing to a round of seven-under carded on the North Course. But he failed to replicate that form on the South Course in any of the next three rounds.

Monday's round started with promise but two bogeys on the back nine undid his four-under for the first nine.

Rickie Fowler was one of the final day's big movers as he played an excellent second-half to his round to pick up four birdies and jump from 26th to a tied sixth place.

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