With a final-round 67, Tiger Woods claimed his 82nd career PGA Tour title at the inaugural Zozo Championship to tie Sam Snead for the most career victories.
Woods finished his four rounds at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on 19-under par, three clear of Hideki Matsuyama.
The win was Woods’ third in his 14 most recent starts, and will move the 43-year old legend to No. 6 in the Official World Rankings.
Afterwards, Woods met with the media to discuss his historic victory. Here are a few pulls from the back and forth.
This week’s 3 Questions for the Winner is powered by The Titleist Store at Amazon.
Initial Thoughts on Japan
Tiger, it’s been a great week here in Japan. Your thoughts and comments on being the winner of the inaugural ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP?
TIGER WOODS:Well, first off, it was a very long week because I was tied for the lead for the better part of five days and going into today’s — finishing up the final round, having a three-shot lead and Hideki making a run like he did last night birdieing 11 and 12 and then he got off to a good start. I made a mistake right away at 11 and it became a pretty good
ballgame.
Wish I would have made one of those putts on 13 and 15, but coming up 18, I had — looking back on it, I probably misread the situation because what happened was Hideki hit his ball on — as I was walking up to 17 green, I made sure I saw him hit his tee shot. He hit a fairway wood off the tee and didn’t like it, so looked like he hit some kind of spinner to the right.
I finish out 17 and we got to 18 tee, looking down there, it looked like when he hit his shot, he hit a good one. People were clapping, people were applauding. When I got into my second shot, I figured he had hit his second shot from the bunker onto the green from the right.
The leaderboard when I got up there on the green didn’t show any of the numbers, so I was looking across to nine and I couldn’t read the numbers, it was too far away, it’s in red, so I figured I need to make par to win by a shot and end up winning by three, which was a little bit to my surprise.
On Sam Snead
Tiger, they showed a picture on TV of you as a little boy meeting Sam Snead. I was just wondering if you would tell us what you remember of that meeting and whether you can see yourself still be out here at 52??
TIGER WOODS: Well, I played with Sam at I think it was Calabasas Country Club. He was doing an outing there and I had come out to play the 17th and 18th holes with him. I remember hitting the ball into a little creek and playing it out of the water and making bogey. I bogeyed the last and he went par-par. The only time I ever got a chance to play with Sam Snead, I was 2-down through two.
But as far as playing until 52, I hope that’s the case. If you would have asked me a few years ago, I would have given you a different answer, but certainly the future looks brighter than it has and hopefully I can be as consistent as he was well into my 40s and early 50s.
On 2020 Olympics
You have just won the tournament in Japan, so I think this winning makes you imagine to compete in Tokyo Olympic Games next year?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I hope so. I hope to qualify for the team and represent my country. Right now I’m ninth in the world and hopefully I’ll move up a little bit, but I don’t know when the qualifying ends.
Hopefully I can play a little better than I did post-Masters this year and play a little better and qualify for the team. I know some of my friends have made Olympic teams before in the past and they said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I have never played for a gold medal before and certainly it would be an honor to do it, and especially at the age I’ll be, I’ll be 44 and I don’t know if I have many more chances after that.
Credit: PGA Tour Media, Fastscripts, Getty Images
