Yet, there were probably heads shaking in the cool, California twilight, not to mention those in living rooms elsewhere in the country. After all, wasn't Woods three shots behind with only seven holes left? And wasn't he putting bumpy greens with an even bumpier stroke? And weren't there so many other faces in the mix? Yes, yes, and yes. Except the only
face that mattered was Woods, and when he turned to see that 10-under was
the best score in the clubhouse — courtesy of Olazabal, who birdied the par-5 18th — Woods nodded. Sure, he hadn't done anything overly positive in a while, but neither had he done anything grossly negative. Remember, he doesn't know how to lose, so with an exchange of two birdies for two bogeys early on his back nine, he settled down, ran off three consecutive pars, and stood on the 18th hole knowing a birdie would get him in a playoff.

All Woods ever wants to know is what he has to do. Just two days earlier, he had gone to the South Course at Torrey Pines knowing he had to shoot at least par to make the cut and ripped off a 68. For 71 holes he had struggled with the driver, but here, he knew he had to find the fairway and he did just that. His second shot had to find the green and it did just that. There were two players at 10-under — Olazabal and Green — and Woods knew that it would take two putts to make it three. He had 50 feet, maybe 60, and even though he once again struggled with the speed and pushed it 8 feet long, Woods didn't dwell on the negative; he focused on the positive.

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Make it, or you lose.

It's a proposition that has crushed many a golfer's spirit, but Woods is one of the rare examples. He embraces such pressure. He drained that putt to get into the playoff. Sure, he missed a similar putt on the first hole of the playoff and people may focus on that, but consider the huge difference between the two putts on the 18th green. The one in regulation he had to make, the one in the playoff he didn't.

Woods made the one he had to make, as he seemingly always does.

The fact that he earned victory two holes later when Olazabal missed a 4-foot putt for par is what others will dwell on and Woods conceded that it pained him. "You don't ever take pleasure out of seeing your friends do that," he said, and quickly the game's greatest player referenced the American Express Championship last fall in San Francisco when John Daly missed a similar putt in a playoff to give Woods a win.

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"I'm sorry," Woods said to Olazabal, words he had spoken to Daly at Harding Park, but no apologies are necessary.

He's a great champion not because he knows how to win, but because he doesn't know how to lose.

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