Tiger Woods insisted he can improve on what he displayed Sunday.
“Yeah,” Woods said. “I mean, if you don’t think that way, just quit.”
That’s Woods’ standard line. There must be something to it because he keeps pushing his game to another level.
Chicago-area fans are used to seeing Woods play some incredible golf, but Sunday’s performance was the best of the best. For the estimated crowd of 45,000 that saw it, it is hard to imagine anything better.
Woods blitzed Cog Hill with a course-record-tying 63 to win the BMW Championship. At 22 under par, he defeated Aaron Baddeley by two shots, making Baddeley’s 66 look pedestrian in comparison.
With a 72-hole total of 262, he annihilated the tournament record of 267, set by Scott Hoch in 2001 and equaled by Woods in 2003.
Woods is the fifth player to reach 60 PGA Tour victories, with Arnold Palmer’s 62 clearly in his sights.
Ten percent of those victories have come in Chicago. Woods won for the sixth time here. He has four victories at Cog Hill and two at Medinah Country Club (PGA Championships). Chicago, along with Orlando, ranks second among towns where Woods has posted the most victories; San Diego is first with eight.
“I’ve always just loved playing here, and for some reason it has showed up in my victories in the Chicago area,” Woods said.
Woods was virtually flawless. He missed only two fairways off the tee and five greens on the weekend. He played the final 24 holes without a bogey. In fact, he had only three holes above par for the entire tournament. How did he make that double bogey on the seventh hole Thursday?
“You know, I hit the ball wonderfully today,” Woods said.
We know.
Woods had to be on his game on a day when it looked as if players were playing from the forward tees on Cog Hill’s No. 1 course rather than from the back on No. 4. Pillow-soft conditions accounted for an average score of 69.138 Sunday, the lowest for a single round in tournament history. The previous mark was set Saturday at 69.292.
It was an all-out assault. Par was a bad score and a bogey was a disaster. Woods, Baddeley and Steve Stricker, who finished third at 18-under, kept pushing each other with a barrage of birdies that had the Cog Hill galleries rocking.
“Well, I’d better make them,” Woods said. “I don’t really have much of a choice. The way that Stricks and Badds were playing behind us, it forced your hand to be more aggressive.
“I was 4-under through nine holes, and I didn’t have the lead.”
Woods assumed control with a 48-foot bomb for birdie on the par-3 12th. When he followed that with another birdie on 13, everyone knew who was going to win this race.
“When he made that putt across the par 3, suddenly you could just see he was into another gear,” said Justin Rose, who was paired with Woods. “His focus was at a different level.”
It was a helpless feeling for Baddeley. He had an exceptional round, but ran a race he couldn’t win.
“I did well in that I didn’t lose the golf tournament,” Baddeley said. “He won it.”
The victory marked the fifth time Woods has won at least six tournaments in a season. At 31, he is the youngest player to hit the 60-victory mark.
“I never would have dreamed this could happen this soon,” Woods said. “I’ve exceeded my expectations, and it has been a lot of fun to enjoy that whole road, that whole process to get 60. It has been a lot of work. There have been some changes along the way, you know? But I think that it all has been great.”
Up next for Woods is the Tour Championship this week in Atlanta. With his victory, he moved into the top spot in the FedEx Cup standings with 112,733 points, ahead of Stricker (109,600) and Phil Mickelson (108,613).
Woods is making the FedEx Cup compelling, even if he isn’t wrapped up in it.
He isn’t concerned about the points. As always, his focus is on winning.
“Winning takes care of everything,” he said.
It did the job again on another memorable day for Woods at Cog Hill.
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esherman@tribune.com
