Tiger finishes off Ames at match play
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-24 10:45

There was plenty of scratching and clawing at La Costa. Eight of the 16 matches went the distance, with three of them going extra holes. Mike Weir was among the survivors, losing the last two holes in regulation to Bernhard Langer, then gathering himself on the 20th hole with a tee shot into 5 feet for birdie.

It was rare for Woods to play all 18 holes. Of his 23 victories in match play at La Costa, this was only the sixth time he was extended to the last hole. But more than the 7-foot birdie to win, he looked back on consecutive birdies on the front nine that turned his fortunes.

After making three bogeys on his first five holes to fall two holes behind, Woods made a 15-foot birdie putt on the seventh hole to cut into Allenby's lead. Then came the par-5 eighth, a mixed bag of good shots and ordinary ones.

With water down the right side and the breeze in his face, Woods hit driver off the deck and kept it to the left, in a back bunker with plenty of green between him and the hole. But he caught his bunker shot heavy, and slung his club toward his bag. Allenby hit wedge into 8 feet.

"I hit two really nice shots and then just chickened out on a bunker shot and left it way short," Woods said. "I wasn't in position to make birdie, and he was. And I made the putt and he didn't. All of a sudden, it looked from potentially going back to 2 up for him ... now we're all square."

And now it's back to square one.