Source: USA TODAY

The he said, he said involving an incident between Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in the third round of last week’s Players Championship has extended to the marshals monitoring the second hole of the Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass.

Woods, the world’s No. 1 who won The Players for his fourth title of the season and 78th of his career, and Garcia, who splashed three balls into the water on the last two holes in the final round to fall out of a share of the lead into a tie for eighth, extended a long running feud when Garcia said Woods — unintentionally or not — caused a distraction that triggered a poor shot.

Rewind to Saturday. Woods’ tee shot on the par-5 second ended up deep into the woods on the left while Garcia was in perfect position on the right side of the fairway, some 50 yards from Woods. While Garcia pondered his second shot, the crowd was cleared near Woods’ ball. After a considerable wait, Garcia stood over his ball and swung away. Just before Garcia started his backswing, Woods pulled a metal wood out of his bag, stirring the crowd. The noise, Garcia said, reached him as he was at the top of his swing. Garcia was clearly frustrated as he looked toward Woods’ way as the ball went deep into the woods by the second green. Garcia would make bogey, Woods a birdie.

Following the round, Garcia questioned Woods’ actions.

“I wouldn’t say that he didn’t see that I was ready, but you do have a feel when the other guy is going to hit and right as I was in the top of the backswing, I think he must have pulled (a club) and obviously everybody started screaming,” Garcia told NBC. “So that didn’t help very much.” Woods said Garcia didn’t have all the facts.

“The marshals, they told me he already hit, so I pulled a club and was getting ready to play my shot,” Woods said.

Two days later, however, Sports Illustrated reported that the chief marshal for the hole, John North, stood over Woods’ ball in the trees as the gallery scurried into position and was 5 feet from Woods when he played his shot.

“Nothing was said to us and we certainly said nothing to him,” North told SI. “I was disappointed to hear him make those remarks. We’re there to help the players and enhance the experience of the fans. He was saying what was good for him. It lacked character.”

The report by SI led many to think Woods was lying about the incident.

Two other marshals, however, are disputing the account in SI and told Gary Smits of the Florida Times-Union that Woods did communicate with marshals and was just guilty of getting the sequence of events mixed up. According to the report on Wednesday, Brian Nedrich and Lance Paczkowski were within 10 to 12 yards of Woods. Both said claims that there wasn’t communication between Woods and marshals are wrong.

“It is not true and definitely unfair to Tiger,” Nedrich, who was a marshal at the second hole, told the Times-Union. “That’s because I was the one Tiger heard say that Sergio had hit.”

But that was after Woods had pulled the club and the crowd had stirred. Nedrich said he could barely see Garcia but got a glimpse of him swinging and saw the ball in the air. Paczkowski, his view of Garcia blocked by bushes, tried to quiet the crowd when Woods pulled his club and said “the other player (Garcia) hasn’t hit yet.” That’s when Nedrich yelled back to Paczkowski that Garcia had hit. Woods even tried to quiet the crowd when he realized Garcia was hitting, pointing Garcia’s way.

In a phone interview with USA TODAY Sports, Nedrich said his initial reaction to the report in SI “was that it was pretty far from the truth.”

“I didn’t think at the time of the incident it would blow up into the fiasco it is today,” said Nedrich, who was a player escort for Garcia the final day. “Tiger couldn’t see what was going on and he was focusing on his shot. He was doing his normal stuff. When I saw Sergio hit and turned to Lance and said, loud enough for Tiger to hear, that it was Tiger’s turn to hit.

” … I’ve read some blogs, some stories saying that I’m a Tiger lover. I have no agenda here, and I’m telling the truth. I like both of the guys. It was an unfortunate incident.”

Paczkowski, who walked every hole with Woods that day with a team of escorts, told USA TODAY Sports he was “shocked” by the report in SI.

“I was mad,” Paczkowski said of the SI report. “I couldn’t believe they were saying that. Making it sound like Tiger lied? I looked at (the report) and wondered if this came out of the Sergio camp because something just wasn’t right. All I can say is they must not have been close enough to hear or see what was going on.”

Paczkowski said he was within 2 to 10 feet from Woods during the entire incident, close enough, he said, “that I didn’t have to raise my voice.”

“As a player escort, we are always near the player,” Paczkowski said. “We asked (Woods) if the crowd was OK, and he said yes. I didn’t have a clear view of Sergio, but I was close to Tiger and he was talking to his caddie. The crowd was making noise and marshals told them to be quiet because the other player hadn’t hit yet. Tiger pulled his club and the marshal yelled that Sergio hit, so I know the marshal did say Sergio hit his ball and Tiger heard him.

” … I believe in the integrity and the honor of the game, and whether you’re a Tiger Woods fan or not, (the SI report) just isn’t true. He doesn’t need to go through this. This is ridiculous.”

Woods was unavailable for comment. Garcia could not be reached for comment; he is in Spain before playing in next week’s BMW PGA Championship in England.

Mark Steinberg, Woods’ agent, did comment in an e-mail to USA TODAY Sports: “The comments from the marshals in today’s story (in the Times-Union) definitively show that Tiger was telling the truth about being told Sergio had hit. I hope this demonstrates to some reporters the importance of accuracy and not jumping to misplaced conclusions.”

North, who did not return phone calls from USA TODAY Sports, clarified his remarks in a follow-up interview Wednesday with SI. He said it was possible that other officials had an exchange with Woods, seeing as he had an earpiece in one ear. North told SI has was beside Woods’ ball as he prepared to hit his shot but was about 20 feet from the ball when Woods swung. North said his statement about Woods’ “character” stemmed from his belief that no marshals talked with Woods.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — After winning The Players Championship on Sunday on the treacherous Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass for his 78th career PGA Tour victory, Tiger Woods was asked about the state of his game.

“It’s getting better,” Woods said.

Food for thought for the rest of the PGA Tour, and it might be hard to digest.

“He’s playing unbelievable golf right now,” said Brandt Snedeker, who played the first two rounds of The Players with Woods. “You can tell as players when a guy is flushing it or not. He has an innate ability to flush it all the time. Even when he is hitting it left or right he’s still hitting it in the center of the clubface whenever he wants to. You never count out guys like that.

“From what I saw the last couple of days he’s been putting great. That’s scary. The way he hits it and with his short game, that’s hard to beat.”

Here are some of the numbers the world’s No. 1 has compiled to now:

4: Victories in 2013. This is the earliest Woods has ever reached four wins in a season.

7: Victories in his last 21 PGA Tour stroke-play events.

52 of 56: Conversion rate when Woods has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

78: Career PGA Tour victories. Sam Snead, with 82, is No. 1 on the list.

300: PGA Tour starts (including as an amateur). Woods also won in his 100th and 200th PGA Tour starts.

Here are a few more numbers over the course of Woods’ 300 PGA Tour starts, including as an amateur:

78 wins (26%), and 28 seconds in his career.

123 top-3s, which is 41% of his starts, and 182 top-10s, 61% of his starts.

And he says he’s getting better?

“The way I was playing at Augusta, I was shaping the golf ball both ways and controlling my trajectory, and I thought that was important coming into this week,” Woods said. “And it ended up being one of the key factors because I missed the golf ball in all the right spots.”

Woods’ next two appearances are expected to be Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, May 30-June 2, and the U.S. Open at Merion, June 13-16.

Muirfield Village is a Woods favorite — like Torrey Pines, Doral and Bay Hill, on which he has won multiple times, including this year — and he will be going for his sixth victory in the Memorial.

Merion will be new territory — “I’ve never played Merion,” Woods says — but he showed a potential winning strategy with his victory at TPC Sawgrass: Rarely using the driver; playing 3-woods, 5-woods and irons off the tee; keeping the ball in play; shaping the ball; controlling distance and trajectory with his irons; making putts.

“I almost feel like he is playing Merion right now with all of the layups and the conservative shots and positioning,” NBC’s Johnny Miller said during The Players broadcast. “It looks like he is getting ready for it right now.”

Merion will be a short — under 7,000 yards — tight layout that will require the kind of precision Woods showed this week. Perhaps the same game plan?

“It sounds good in theory. But I don’t know,” Woods said, with a laugh.

As for whether he really is getting better, many won’t accept it until he finds the winner’s circle again in a major.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — With a history of bruises on a golf course that can dish out pain on every hole, in a tournament he’s won only once, and on a weekend he took verbal jabs from Sergio Garcia and jabbed back, Tiger Woods had to call on all his powers to win The Players Championship.

Digging deep after dunking his tee shot into the water on the 14th hole and squandering a 2-shot lead, Woods collected his thoughts before his next shot and controlled his emotions down the stretch to win his second Players, a dozen years after claiming his first.

Woods left TPC Sawgrass late on Mother’s Day night with his fourth win of the season and the 78th Tour title of his career, just four shy of Sam Snead’s all-time record of 82. He has won seven of his last 21 stroke-play Tour events and is now 52-4 when holding at least a share of the lead entering the final round. Woods also became the sixth player to win multiple Players titles in the tournament’s 40 years, joining Hal Sutton, Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Davis Love III and Jack Nicklaus, the only three-time winner.

“It was a tough battle,” Woods said. “This golf course has been a little bit tricky over the years, and I’m not the only one who’s struggled with it. It’s a tough course. Fortunately, I’ve been playing really well, and the last tournament I played in, I played really well. So coming here I was pretty confident in what I was doing.

” … I hit it so good today, it was fun. I hit it high, low, left to right, right to left, whatever I wanted, except for that tee shot at 14.”

After his water miscue, the world’s No. 1 golfer said a key par save on the next hole — with a clutch 8-foot putt — “turned the tide” for him.

He temporarily grabbed the outright lead with a birdie on the par-5 16th, and closed with two pars to post a 2-under-par 70 for the day and 13 under for the tournament, two shots in front of David Lingmerth, Kevin Streelman and Jeff Maggert, who at 49 was trying to become the oldest Players champion.

“I was in control of the tournament, got to the 14th tee and hit the worst shot I could possibly hit,” said Woods, whose girlfriend, skier Lindsey Vonn, was in the gallery. “But it was the only bad swing I had all day and I was still tied for the lead.”

Garcia, playing behind Woods in the final group with the little-known Lingmerth, pulled even with Woods with a birdie on 16.

Then, disaster. The Spaniard dunked two balls into the water on the fan-favorite island par-3 at 17 for a quadruple-bogey 7, followed by another ball into the water on 18 and a double-bogey that dropped him to eighth place. Five years ago, when he won The Players, it was his opponent in the playoff, Paul Goydos, who found the water at 17.

“That hole has been good to me for the most part,” Garcia said. “Today, it wasn’t. … That’s the kind of hole it is. You’ve got to love it for what it is.”

The only player left for Woods to dodge was Lingmerth, who had missed his last five cuts heading into The Players and counts just one professional win. Lingmerth missed a 7-foot putt for birdie on the 17th and then he missed a 60-footer for birdie on the last, eventually three-putting to fall out of solo second.

‘Don’t like each other’

Sunday broke early for Woods, Garcia and six others who had to restart the third round at 7:10 a.m. after a storm delayed action Saturday. Woods and Garcia, who played in the marquee final group on Saturday, started from the 15th fairway. Woods made one birdie, Garcia two in the closing holes and shared the 54-hole lead with Lingmerth.

Lingmerth and Garcia were paired in the final group for the final round, with Woods in the penultimate group with Casey Wittenberg. Garcia said it was a good thing he and Woods weren’t paired.

“He’s not my favorite guy to play with. He’s not the nicest guy on Tour. So it will good for both us not to play together again,” Garcia said following completion of the third round. “We don’t like each other. It doesn’t take a rocket engineer to figure that out.”

The two didn’t play nice on Saturday. They extended a long-running feud following an incident on the second fairway in the third round. Garcia told NBC during a storm delay that Woods — unintentionally or not — had caused a distraction that triggered Garcia to hit his worst shot of the day. Garcia said that when Woods pulled a 5-wood out of his bag for his second shot out of the trees, the crowd responded with cheers — during Garcia’s swing. Woods countered after the round that he is accustomed to Garcia complaining.

“Obviously, he doesn’t know all the facts,” Woods said Saturday. “The marshal said he already hit and I pulled the 5-wood and hit.

” … It’s not really surprising he was complaining about something.”

Garcia, when told of Woods’ response, said, “I don’t care. At least I’m true to myself. I know what I’m doing. And he can do whatever he wants.”

The frosty relationship between Woods and Garcia dates to the made-for-TV Battle at Bighorn in 2000, when Garcia beat Woods and celebrated a bit too much, especially with Woods batttling the flu.

Two years later at the U.S. Open, Garcia complained that heavy rains should have forced stoppage in play — saying that if Woods had been playing during the heavy rains, play would have been stopped.

Woods winning 14 majors hasn’t helped the relationship, either, as Garcia remains at zero, though Garcia has played a major role Europe’s success in the Ryder Cup.

Following Sunday’s final round, Garcia didn’t blame the scrap with Woods on his play down the stretch. But he had one parting shot.

“Was it a distraction? Maybe a little bit. But I mean, it really distracted me at that time, then after that you kind of move on and you try to figure things out,” said Garcia, who added he doesn’t regret saying anything about the incident. ” … I don’t know, it sounds like I was the bad guy here. I was the victim.”

Woods implied the same thing, saying he just goes out and tries to win golf tournament. He had nothing to say about Garcia’s Sunday comments, just saying he handled the situation well.

Another drop scrutinized

NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller had plenty to say — about Woods’ drop on the 14th hole. Woods hooked his 3-wood into the water hazard on the left and had to determine where the ball last crossed the hazard line. Woods, who was involved in a drop controversy in the Masters last month, eventually dropped 255 yards from the hole after consulting with playing partner Casey Wittenberg.

Miller said it was “borderline” whether Woods dropped in the proper place. Mark Rolfing, the only analyst near the tee, said he didn’t have a problem with it.

Mark Russell, vice president of competition for the PGA Tour, said there was no problem.

“I saw it perfectly off the tee,” Wittenberg said. “I told him exactly where I thought it crossed, and we all agreed. We talked to each other. He asked me exactly where it crossed. I told him I thought it crossed on the corner of the bunker right where he took his drop, and it’s all good.

“There is no doubt, guys. The ball crossed where he dropped.”

And there’s no doubt Woods is the best player in the game. He likely will play next in The Memorial, one of his three wins last year. Then he will play in the U.S. Open and try and win his first major since the 2008 U.S. Open.

“Am I surprised? No,” Woods said when asked if he’s surprised with his latest stretch of outstanding golf. “I know a lot of people in this room thought I was done. But I’m not. … I’m just trying to get better, and I feel like I’m getting better as the year’s going on, which is nice.”

Numbers piling up for Tiger

4: Victories in 2013. This is the earliest Woods has ever reached four wins in a season.

7: Victories in his last 21 PGA Tour stroke-play events.

52 of 56: Conversion rate when Woods has at least a share of the 54-hole lead.

78: Career PGA Tour victories. Sam Snead, with 82, is No. 1 on the list.

300: PGA Tour starts (including as an amateur). Woods also won in his 100th and 200th PGA Tour starts.

$5,849,600: Official PGA Tour earnings in 2013.

$106,800,300: Official career PGA Tour earnings.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.