Tournament article

ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP 2019

Tiger wins at ZOZO Championship to tie Snead for most wins in PGA Tour history

Tiger has done it! He has answered to all of the expectations from his Japanese fans and earned the victory at the ZOZO Championship, the inaugural PGA Tour event in Japan.

After the play was called off on Sunday due to darkness, Tiger still had 7 more holes left to complete on Monday morning. He still had 3 shots lead against Hideki Matsuyama, but Tiger was mentioning "It is tough to start from the one of the hardest Par 4s on the course".

He got caught in the bunker on his second shot, couldn't get it up close to the pin and had to start his chase for 82 wins with a bogey.

He had a birdies chance on 13 but had to settle for par there. Then on 14, Par 5 he makes 6-meter birdie to regain that 3 shot lead. He also had another birdie chance on 15 but couldn't reach. At the same time, Hideki birdies and Tiger's lead goes down to 2 shots. Tiger had another 6-meter birdie putt on Par 3 16, but taps in for par.

Tiger securely saves par on 17, while Hideki in front group of him gets caught in the fairway bunker on 18. Final hole being Par 5, Tiger's chase for the No.82 seemed to be almost done, unless Hideki makes an eagle from his position. Hideki aggressively aims for the green with 3-wood decided to try to cut a 3-wood out of the bunker but just won't turn enough and get caught in the greenside bunker. Hideki still aims to hole that bunker shot to get even with Tiger for a possible playoff, but he hits it to thin, and flies over to the back edge of the green. He had 12-meter birdie putt but fails to make it. Now, Tiger has more than enough breathing space.

Tiger's second shot from 281 yards out with 5-wood goes into the right greenside bunker, but he showed beautiful bunker shot and gave himself 6-meter birdie putt. He could have even three-putted for the win, but he made that birdie putt and marked his win No.82 to tie Sam Snead for the all-time record for most wins in PGA Tour.

"This is big. Hideki made it tight. It was a lot closer than people maybe thought. It is just crazy. It is a lot. I have been able to be consistent most of my career and have put myself up there with a chance to win on a number of occasions, there was plenty of times I didn't but today was one of those days where I was able to pull it out. It was definitely stressful."