Tiger Woods rallies, but comes up short

By Associated Press
Posted: September 7, 2009

NORTON, Mass. – Tiger Woods was 6 under after six holes in the final round of the Deutsche Bank Championship, leaving fans wondering whether they would see an unprecedented comeback.

But Woods never got his hopes up after starting the day nine strokes back.

“The whole idea was to try and shoot something in the low 60s and that would probably get me in the top 10,” he said after an 8-under-par 63 briefly brought him within a stroke of the lead. “Certainly from where I was at, I couldn’t win the tournament, even if I shot 60 or something like that. I was so far back; these guys, (with) no wind, soft greens and pretty benign pins, they’ll go low.”

Woods, who has never come from more than eight strokes behind to win as a pro, shot 70-67-72 over the first three rounds to earn an early tee time Monday – more than three hours before Steve Stricker and Retief Goosen left at 1:40 p.m. Woods, who won at TPC Boston in 2006, birdied the first four holes and eagled No. 6 on Monday morning.

But he bogeyed the 11th and 17th, played the back nine in 2 under and finished 12 under for the tournament.

He was the leader in the clubhouse for hours, but he knew it wouldn’t last.

“Whether you can win a tournament or not, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “You go out there and post a low number, as low as you’ve got for that day. It doesn’t change, whether you’ve just made the cut or you’re dew sweeping on the last day. It doesn’t matter. You post a low round and see what happens. You can feel good about it, you know?”