Aussie ends Tiger's winning streak

Kiwi finishes second last

Reuters

TIGER HUNT: Australian Geoff Ogilvy holds the Gene Sarazen Cup after winning the WGC-CA Championship golf tournament in Doral, Florida and ending Tiger Woods' seven tournament winning streak.

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Tiger Woods' winning streak has been snapped as Australian golfer Geoff Ogilvy kept his nerve to win the WGC-CA Championship in Doral, Florida.

Woods, who had won his last seven tournaments worldwide and had not been defeated since September, finished fifth, two shots behind Ogilvy.

Ogilvy finished on 17 under-par - a shot ahead of South African Retief Goosen, American Jim Furyk and Fiji's Vijay Singh who were all tied for second place.

New Zealand's Mark Brown finished 76th of the 77 golfers to complete the tournament on nine-over after finishing with a two-over 74 today.

Brown, a recent double winner in India of the Sail Open and Johnnie Walker Classic, was pragmatic about his performance.

"Things didn't really click this week but I knew it was going to be a learning curve. I'll take the positives away from this," he told Radio Sport.

Brown's world ranking has dropped four places to 64.

The remaining holes of the competition were finished early today (NZ time) after weather disrupted yesterday's play.

After sharing the lead with Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez on the opening day, Ogilvy ended each round on top of the leaderboard and he held firm.

Ogilvy's success ends his barren spell since his triumph at the US Open in 2006.

"It has been a while. Last year was a frustrating year because I got up thereabouts quite a few times and never really got it done obviously. It's been a frustrating time since the US Open. I mean, I've played okay," he said.

"I've had periods of good play and bad play. I've had two babies since then. Well, my wife has had two babies since then. I contributed somewhere along the line.

"So that's been an adjustment, and just trying to work out how to balance golf and family and home time and travel and how to get all that worked out, whether that contributes to not winning golf tournaments.
Priorities off the golf course change a little bit."

Woods said that after a frustrating round and a generally disappointing week in terms of missing putts for birdies, it was not a bad result.

"I made too many mistakes this week," he said.

"I had four three-putts this week and I had two terrible lies in bunkers and a photographer got me on nine. With all that, to only finish two back, I think that's a great sign."

The 13-times major winner, whose focus will now switch to next month's US Masters, said that the media and fans had not fully appreciated what his winning streak involved and the fine line between victory and failure.

"I think the people that truly understand are the players. I don't think you guys really understand or even the fans out there just how small the difference is.

"If I just cleaned up my round this week then obviously I am right up there with Geoff, if not just a little bit ahead," he said.

"I had ample chances to get myself up there on that board and win the tournament and I just didn't do it".

The last time Woods was beaten was in September when he tied for second at the Deutsche Bank Championship in Norton, Massachusetts.

He had won nine of his last 10 competitions, including the unofficial Target World Challenge held in Thousand Oaks, California in December.

- Reuters