Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa faced late hole blues to deny themselves the chance of finishing higher up on the leaderboard at the US$-6 million WGC-American Express Championship, at the tough Crabapple course of Capital City Club at Woodstock.
Atwal, triple bogeyed the final hole of his round to return a final round card of four-over 74. That ensured a tied-48th finish for him at 14-over 294.
Randhawa's card displayed a hat-trick of double bogeys on the 16th, 17th and 18th which contributed to his finishing at six-over 76. His tournament aggregate of 16-over 296 tied him at 54th position.
World No 1 golfer Tiger Woods put himself in an excellent position to win the year ending "Player of the Year" award with his 39th career title win.
Woods who shot a level-par 72 today, finished two strokes ahead of Stuart Appleby and Tim Herron at six-under 274. This handed the American his fifth title win of the season and the winner's cheque of $ 1.5 million.
Atwal's final round began in a positive manner. The current Asian PGA Tour Money List leader after dropping a shot early on the second, went on to return a hat-trick of birdies on the fifth, sixth and seventh.
His second bogey of the day on the ninth saw him make the turn at one-under. His back-nine however, was a disaster. Bogeys on the 11th and 16th were followed by a nightmarish triple bogey on the par-4 18th. Though Atwal putted well as his 26 putt aggregate will testify, he struggled to find the greens today.
Randhawa, despite suffering from flu, played his front-nine to level-par with birdies on the fifth and seventh being off-set by bogeys on the eighth and ninth. His third straight bogey on the tenth was followed by a birdie on the 12th.
There was little to worry about at this stage as the urgaon based golfer was heading for a finish somewhere between the 30th and 35th position.
However, disaster was just round the corner. A series of double bogeys on his closing holes led him to lose six strokes and finish with a final round score of six-over 76.
Tiger Woods played his worst round of the week today. However, with the stroke average for the field settling at 72.542 for the final day, Woods still managed to beat it. The champion golfer returned 32 putts for his round but what was amazing was his driving average which stood at a staggering 321 yards off every tee.
