Chevron World Challenge 2011: Tiger Woods Wins With Birdie On 18

Tiger Woods completed the comeback, making birdie on 18 to surpass Zach Johnson at the 2011 Chevron World Challenge on Sunday by one shot. Woods posted back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th holes on his way to shooting 3-under on the day, and 10-under for the tournament. Johnson seemed to play relatively safe after posting two eagles in the third round. He shot even through 15 holes, leaving him tied with Woods. Johnson birdied on 16 to seemingly give himself the lead for good. Woods responded with a birdie of his own on 17 to pull back even heading into the final hole.

Woods earned his first PGA tournament win since 2009, perhaps conquering whatever demons have been hampering for the past two years. Paul Casey, Hunter Mahan and Matt Kuchar rounded out the final top five, shooting 5-under, 4-under and 4-under for the tournament, respectively.

Tiger Woods seems to be finding his groove at the 2011 Chevron World Challenge taking place in Thousand Oaks, Calif., this week. Woods hasn’t won a PGA tournament since 2009, but the former top-ranked golfer in the world is sitting atop the leaderboard midway through the third round of this week’s challenge.

Woods finished with a 69 in the first round and followed that up by shooting a 67 in the second round on Friday, leading to his being eight strokes below par heading in Saturday’s third round. Woods hasn’t been quite as impressive as he was during the first two rounds as he’s shooting one-over on Day 3, but it’s still good enough to give him a one-stroke lead.

After carding a 3-under 69 to open the Chevron World Challenge on Thursday, Tiger Woods turned it on in the second round, surging to the top of the leaderboard after two days. Woods finished his second round at 5-under for the day and 8-under for the tournament, taking a three-shot lead into the weekend. After struggling for much of the year, Woods finds himself in perfect position to win his first event of the year in the last time he takes the course.

Woods is being chased by K.J. Choi and Matt Kuchar, who sit in a tie for second at 5-under. Choi faltered after a strong first round, falling back on the leaderboard as a result. Kuchar, on the other hand, turned in a 5-under round, vaulting into the tie for second.

Tiger Woods is back in action for the first time since his trip in Australia, which included a third-place finish at the Australian Open and a spot on the winning Presidents Cup side. On Thursday, Woods hits the course in the Chevron World Challenge, competing against a loaded field of the world’s top golfers.

The Chevron World Challenge features a field of players who had a successful 2011 campaign, including Keegan Bradley, Jason Day and many others. It’s a small field, with only 18 players going off in pairings beginning on Thursday morning. And it all takes place at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California.

Considering the Chevron World Challenge is an event put on by his own foundation, chances are Tiger Woods could have been placed in the 18-man field regardless of his ranking. As it is, Woods was barely able to retain his Top 50 World Golf Ranking that made him automatically eligible for an exemption.

The tournament is hosted by the Tiger Woods Foundation, is played at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. and features the most recent winners of the four majors, the top 11 available players in the World Golf Ranking and two sponsor exemptions who are supposed to be in the Top 50 of the rankings. The event is not officially part of the PGA Tour, but the $5 million prize purse does count toward the unofficial PGA money rankings and the event does count in the World Golf Rankings. If Woods had not been ranked in the Top 50, it likely would not have counted for rankings points. Woods actually fell to No. 52 in the world after finishing in 30th at the Frys.com Open, which was his first tournament in about two months, but that was after the field had already been set.