“I was just trying to two-putt from there and get out of there with a 4,” Woods said. “And it happened to go in.”

He straightened his back to watch it track toward the hole, guiding it with his hand as it got close. He raised his arms and backed away when it fell, a slight look of surprise, then turned and delivered a fist pump that hadn’t been seen in a while.

The eagle put him at 13 under, one shot ahead of Singh, whom Woods had just watched make birdie with a tricky 4-foot putt.

And the world’s No. 1 player took off from there.

With the gallery still buzzing, he pitched a sand wedge to 8 feet on the next hole for birdie. And from the rough left of the ninth fairway, his approach barely cleared the bunker and bounced off a knob to 18 feet. That birdie putt dropped on the final turn, sending Woods to a 31 on the outward nine.

He had a three-shot lead heading to the 10th, and there was little doubt who was going to win.

The surprise was the suspense that followed.

Woods made bogey on the 10th from 78 yards in the fairway. Then came the three-putt double bogey on the par-3 13th, where he missed the green to the right.

“I figured I just let so many guys back in the tournament, gave them a shot of momentum,” Woods said. “But at least I birdied 15 and found out I had the lead going to 16, 17 and 18. That’s all I wanted.”

Woods wound up with the 57th victory of his career, and he is winning at an astounding rate. He is 3-of-6 this year and was asked if his game was as good as it could be.

“It’s three short of where I wanted to be,” he said with a laugh. “It’s been good, just one little negative there.”

The negative was not winning a green jacket.

He had to settle for a blue one Sunday, which wasn’t all bad.

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