2010 Chevron World Challenge wrapped up on Sunday, 5th December at Sherwood Country Club in California. Graeme McDowell seized the trophy of the tournament along with the cheque of $1.25 million and capped the PGA Tour with fourth title. The results went against the predictions. For the ones who missed the great combat, here is a recap of the event:
The tournament, which was hosted by Tiger Woods, kicked off on Thursday with a field of 18 players. Eleven Americans teed off against five Europeans to grab a share in the purse of $5 million. However, in the first round, a perfect combat was witnessed between one American, Tiger Woods and two Europeans, Rory Mc Ilroy and Graeme McDowell.
Tiger smashed eight birdies on the loss of one hole and took the charge of the field. One stroke behind were Rory Mc Ilroy and Graeme McDowell. At the fourth place was the player, who was in limelight for making claims of taking Tiger Woods down. Ian Poulter failed to conquer the course the way he did in Hong Kong and surrendered at par.
On the second day of the Chevron World Challenge, Tiger kept his name vaulted on the top of the leader board. The 34-year-old smashed a bogey free round of six birdies and took a four-stroke lead over Graeme and five strokes over Rory.
Woods could not stop smiling, as it was the first time in the year that the former world number one had surged into lead. Woods told the press, "I hit a lot of pure putts. I was not quite as sharp as yesterday, but I was able to piece it together and figure out how to hit better shots when I was struggling a little bit. I hit a couple loose shots and all of a sudden, 'OK, this is what I need to do to fix it.' And I fixed it. So that was nice."
Four strokes behind was the winner, Graeme McDowell. The player, who hails from Northern Ireland, gave a close combat to the leader. However, he dropped a shot on the ninth hole, which resulted in a double bogey. The veteran was not sombre with his game, but still kept himself together. Rory McIlroy and Luke Donald chased the Irish with eight-under and managed to seize the third spot of the leader board.
In the third round, only four players managed to keep the scores in the realms of par. Tiger was one of them. The runner-up picked seven birdies against two bogeys and once again remained successful in keeping the lead. Graeme and Stewart Cink smashed an identical score, but could not override the veteran. The worst score of the day was produced by Dustin Johnson, who helped one birdie and one bogey in a round of 80.
The real drama started in the final round when Graeme birdied the final hole and forced the tournament into a play-off. The 18th hole was chosen as the deciding hole, which turned out to be a bad news for the world number two. Tiger failed to birdie the hole whereas Graeme successfully holed it from 20 feet and surged into victory.
Rory smashed five birdies and took the fourth place whereas Paul Casey stroke 69 and grabbed the third place.
Despite the loss, Woods was happy with his achievement. He told the press, "It was a great week, even though I didn't win. I am proud of today, even though I lost. The way I am playing right now, yeah, I would like to continue playing. Even though I lost and made countless mistakes in the middle part of the round, it said a lot for me to come back and put my swing back together again."
