2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational

If the Arnold Palmer Invitational were a UFC fight, the match could have been called after the second hole on Sunday. After just two holes on Sunday, Tiger Woods erased Sean O'Hair's 5-shot lead to a 2-shot lead. By then, Tiger had his foot on O'Hair's throat and never let up. By then, I predicted on Twitter that the match was over -- even though there was 4 hours and 16 holes left to play. The look on O'Hair's shaken, tense face said it all: he was another dead man golfing against Tiger Woods, with 16 holes left to play. Inevitable. But we all knew the ending (and if you didn't, you don't know Tiger Woods). It's the same ending we've seen Tiger pull against Phil, Ernie, Vijay, Weir, Goosen, Dimarco, Rocco, Sergio, Love III, Bob May, Monty, Olazabal, Duval, Norman, Appleby, and just about everyone final round opponent Tiger has faced (except Hal Sutton "be the right club"). It was the same ending Tiger pulled off as an amateur in 1996 at Pumpkin Ridge, coming back from 5-holes down to beat Steve Scott. But no matter how much we've witnessed Tiger Woods beat his opponents, it never gets old. Sunday's match-winning putt at Bay Hill (a repeat from last year) was just another virtuoso performance by a golf genius. We are lucky to behold Tiger's mastery.