Norton, Mass. – Tiger Woods needed three holes to make it a fair fight.
Before long, it was no contest.
Woods made two eagles in his first seven holes to turn a rally into a rout, matching the best final round of his career with an 8-under-par 63 to win the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday and stretch his PGA Tour winning streak to five tournaments.
It was the first time Woods has won five straight times in one season, and his two-shot victory over Vijay Singh gave him seven titles in only 14 tournaments this year.
“It’s nice when you get on a roll like this where things are just happening,” Woods said.
Woods, who began the round three strokes behind Singh, hit a towering 6-iron from 210 yards that carried a swamp and plopped down 10 feet from the hole for eagle on the par-5 second. Then came a tee shot to 15 feet for birdie on the next hole to give him a share of the lead.
“I just had to run him down as fast as possible, try to at least get him by the time the front nine was over,” Woods said. “But I was able to do it within three holes.”
Two holes later, he raised the putter in his left hand toward the sunny skies as a 25-foot birdie fell to give him the lead. And his best golf was yet to come.
Singh didn’t do himself any favors by missing four of the first six greens and settling for pars. But even after Singh made a spectacular play, an 87-yard bunker shot on the par-5 seventh that spun back to 2 feet, Woods made a 10-foot eagle for a two-shot lead. And after two more birdie putts on the back nine that crushed Singh’s spirits, Woods was hoisting yet another trophy.
“Tiger played unbelievable,” Singh said. “He made two eagles and just took it away.”
The streak started in July at the British Open, when Woods won for the first time since his father died in May.
The victories haven’t stopped.
There were four rounds of 66 at the Buick Open, followed by a putting exhibition at Medinah that carried him to a five-shot victory in the PGA Championship for his 12th career major. Then came his 11th title in the World Golf Championships at Firestone, winning a four-hole playoff against Stewart Cink.
Byron Nelson won 11 straight tournaments in 1945, a streak regarded as one of the most untouchable in sports.
Woods won four straight at the end of 1999 and his first two in 2000 for six in a row, tied with Ben Hogan in 1948 for the second-longest winning streak.
His next PGA Tour event will be the American Express Championship outside London the last week of September.
“You’ve got to have so many things go right,” Woods said. “In this day and age, with this competition, to win 11 in a row would be almost unheard of.”
