Dominance: The best of Tiger Woods
By Bill Felber
4. 2003 Arnold Palmer Invitational
Woods’ relationship with Palmer, and his dominance of the event hosted by The King annually at Bay Hill, should not be forgotten. Eight different times Palmer greeted Woods as champion, including four years running from 2000 through 2003.
The last of that string, in March of 2003, was the most impressive, and in those days that was saying something. Woods had won by four strokes in 2000, taking down Phil Mickelson in a 2001 playoff, then won again by four in 2002. Entering the 2003 event, it was truly a case of “Tiger vs. The field.”
For a while, the field made a decent run at him. Woods turned in a Thursday 70, but Stewart Cink, Aaron Baddeley, Jonathan Kaye and J.L. Lewis all posted 69 to lead him by one.
On Friday, Woods asserted himself with a 65, the day’s best round. That left him comfortably in front, three ahead of Cink with Baddeley and Kaye four back.
Woods made sure that keeping up with him over 72 holes would be a challenge. When Cink and Baddeley both shot 72, his Saturday 66 left him five ahead of Brad Faxon. Woods closed with a Sunday 68, six better than Faxon and four better than Cink.
The final margin was 11 strokes over Cink, Faxon, Kenny Perry and Kirk Triplett. Woods’ total of 269 was 3.31 standard deviations superior to the 288.54 field average.