Tiger Woods added another $1 million dollars to his massive bank balance with a sold gold performance at Mount Juliet.

The World number one had to shoot a final round 66 to win the American Express Championship by a shot, despite a final round charge by South African Retief Goosen and a trigger-happy photographer.

Woods didn’t break the European Tour scoring record of 27 under par but he almost pulled of a personal best of playing an entire tournament without making a bogey.

And he rated his performance as his best over 72 hole since his US Open win at Pebble Beach in 2000.

Needing to par the last to pull if off, the American superstar was over the ball 236 yards for the flag when a photographer took a picture and caused him to miss the green.

Woods failed to save par from four feet and he was frustrated afterwards by his lack of concentration at a vital moment.

“The most important shot of the entire week and he gets happy finger,” moaned Woods of the photographer. It just threw my focus off. I probably never got it back to where it should have been.

“I was so hot because of all the times for him to take a photo. I’m 236 yards out and I trying to hit a four iron in there which isn’t exactly an easy shot.”

Former US Open champion Goosen equalled the course record of 62 set only hours earlier by Sergio Garcia to put Woods under pressure, but the American was equal to the challenge.

With his lead cut to just one shot playing the par five 17th, Woods pulled his drive behind a tree before making a miracle recovery.

First he faded a four iron around the tree to within 40 yards of the flag and then pitched to 15 feet from a nasty lie and holed the putt for a birdie.

“I knew that my pitch was probably going to be the shot of the tournament,” he said. “It was in the grain and sitting down on top of that and I knew it was hard underneath the ball.

“If I blade it I’ll probably lose the tournament so I said, ‘Just suck it up an put it on the green like you know you can and put yourself in a position to make a putt.”

He drained it and went on to win by one from Goosen as Fiji’s Vijay Singh finished third on 21 under par, four behind Woods, after a final round of 65.

Woods knew that he had to make lots of birdies just to make sure of his sixth World Golf Championship victory on a perfect day for scoring.

Five shots ahead of the field starting the day, he birdied three of the first five holes and never looked back until Goosen made four birdies and an eagle between the 12th and the 17th to get to within a shot.

“You knew you had to keep making birdies because the course wasn’t playing hard at all,” Woods said. “It was playing like it was the first two days. The greens were soft and there was very little wind.

“You knew somebody was going to make a run, somebody was going to shoot a low number. I just didn’t figure it had to be that low. You go and shoot 66 and win by one.”

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington shot a final round of 69 to finish in 21st place and claim a cheque for € euro 59,529 as Darren Clarke collected 26,000 for second last.

A crowd of 33,600 filled the Kilkenny estates yesterday to bring the attendance for the four days to over 120,000.

But Woods was still angry with the photographer for his final hole bogey, even after collecting the trophy and the winner’s cheque.

“I’m hot at him, yes. I’m also hot for blocking that putt. I’m hot because I played so good the entire week. I played 71 consecutive holes without dropping a shot. That’s pretty good golf and today was the best I’ve played all week,” he said.

Now he’s getting ready to help the US retain the Ryder Cup

Sergio Garcia have European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance a boost with a course record ten under par 62 for seventh place as Swede Niclas Fasth weighed in with a 64.

Garcia missed a 12 footer for a career best of 61 but he was delighted to go into the Ryder Cup with his confidence sky high.

He said: “I’m looking forward to hopefully having a good week, but as a team. The atmosphere and the energy and everything inside of you changes the Ryder Cup. I think players who are not even playing that great, in the Ryder CUP you try extra hard to play well. It shows in every Ryder Cup.”

And Garcia admitted that he would love to go head to head with Woods in the Ryder Cup singles next Sunday.

“If me beating Tiger on Sunday means winning the Ryder Cup, I’m looking forward to it,” he added.

“If I lose and we win the Ryder Cup I don’t mind losing. The most important thing is to win the Ryder Cup, that’s what we are going to try to do.”

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© Brian Keogh 2002

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