Tiger's victory at AT&T is all his own

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By Barker Davis

Call it a capital conquest.

Tiger Woods etched his name on his own tournament trophy Sunday, leaving spike marks on protege Anthony Kim and overcoming a record-matching salvo from Hunter Mahan to win the third edition of the AT&T National at Congressional Country Club.

"This was a dream of mine to have my own event and win it," said Woods, who finished with a 13-under 267 to notch his 68th PGA Tour victory by a stroke over Mahan. "It was long week, but I got the 'W.' "

Woods began the day deadlocked with Kim at 10 under, and the matchup between the world No. 1 and the blossoming star galvanized galleries on the property like no single pairing in D.C. golf history.

It was as if there were only one twosome present on the 7,255-yard, par-70 course. A massive one-group gallery dwarfing anything witnessed at the 1997 U.S. Open stood 10-deep from tee-to-green on every hole the duo played.

Was this history in the making? Woods and Kim had never been paired together before in an event, much less in the final pairing of the final round. And this was a chance for the 24-year-old defending champion to show whether he had the game and moxie to stand up to his idol under the intense combination of stress and scrutiny.

Nope.

It would be unkind to label the showdown a dud, but Kim showed he isn't quite ready to tangle with Tiger. Kim's lone true highlight came at No. 1, where he nearly holed out from the fairway for eagle to move ahead of golf's leviathan at 11 under. The rest of his meandering, closing 71 is best forgotten; the uber-aggressive Kim fought a nasty case of the dead-pulls off the tee and missed five putts under six feet en route to a third-place finish at 9-under 271.

"I struggled out there with my swing and never really got into a rhythm," a dejected Kim said after his long-awaited date with destiny turned into a mini-nightmare. "But the bottom line is you have to make putts, and I didn't make any."

While Kim slowly slid down the leader board, Woods marched steadily around the front nine, posting birdies at Nos. 6 and 7 to go out in 33 and then adding a bomb at the par-3 10th to reach 13 under. At that point, Woods held a three-stroke lead on Mahan and Kim, and yet another Woods rout looked like a foregone conclusion.