Woods wins, tightens hold on No. 1 ranking

VIRGINIA WATER, England, July 6 (UPI) -- Tiger Woods has run his reign as the No 1 golfer in the world to 213 consecutive weeks, rankings released Monday indicate.
Woods won his own tournament Sunday, which solidified his hold on the rankings' top spot. He defeated Hunter Mahan, who had a course-record tying 62 Sunday to get into contention while Anthony Kim finished third.
Woods has been the top-rated men's golfer for 555 weeks. Greg Norman (331 weeks) is the only other golfer to be No. 1 for more than 100 weeks in the 23 years of the rankings.
Phil Mickelson is still second on the current list with Paul Casey third, Kenny Perry fourth and Sergio Garcia in fifth.
Geoff Ogilvy, now sixth, switched places with No. 7 Henrik Stenson in the only change in the Top 10 this week.
Steve Stricker is eighth, followed by, in order, Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh.
Mahan's strong finish allowed him to improve 13 spots to a No. 26 ranking. Kim went from 15th to 14th this week.

When 62 isn't good enough

Even after 67 victories, Tiger Woods hadn't had a finish quite like Sunday's at the AT&T National.
Challenged by Hunter Mahan's record-tying 62 at Congressional in Bethesda, Md., Woods plotted his way along the back nine and delivered the decisive birdie with a 20-foot putt on the 16th green, closing with a 3-under-par 67 for a one-shot victory.
With three birdies in a five-hole stretch, Woods surged past Anthony Kim, who finished third, four shots back, in the high-charged final pairing. Mahan finished second after making six birdies on the back nine and tying Kim's course-record 62 set Thursday.
Woods had routine pars on the final two holes to finish at 13-under 267 for his third victory this year.
He won in his second try at the tournament he hosts, just as Jack Nicklaus won his Memorial in the second year.
"It was great shaking my hand today," Woods said.
The 68th victory of his PGA Tour career moved him to the top of the money list and FedEx Cup standings for the first time this year.
It was the ideal final pairing at Congressional - the world's No. 1 player and tournament host tied with Kim, a confident 24-year-old who was the defending champion.
"I had a lot of fun," said Kim, who didn't have a birdie on the back nine. "I know I'll be knocking on the door again. It's only a matter of time. I learned if you have a birdie putt, you better make it."
YI PREVAILS: Eunjung Yi squandered a six-stroke lead, then hit a 10-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole to defeat Morgan Pressel and collect her first LPGA victory in what might be the final Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic in Sylvania, Ohio. The 21-year-old from South Korea, who had missed the cut in four of her seven starts this year and collected just more than $11,000 on her biggest payday, won $210,000 Sunday. Michelle Wie made a back-nine rush to finish 16-under, tied for third.
PLAYOFF WIN: Martin Kaymer hit an 18-foot putt on the first playoff hole to beat Lee Westwood and win the French Open in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, a PGA European Tour event.

Woods Draws a Crowd at Congressional

Glover, Hoffman Get a Taste of What It's Like to Play With World's No. 1 Player

Tiger Woods was still three holes away, but the audience started to build at the 10th hole. Congressional's clubhouse balcony was full. Fans surrounded the tee boxes, crowded the rope along the fairway and fought for space at the green.
For Woods, the attention is standard. It is not as customary for the golfers he partnered with yesterday.
Lucas Glover and Charley Hoffman both said they enjoyed the hordes of onlookers that watched their round during the first day of the AT&T National. It helped that Glover won the U.S. Open in June, which enhanced his name recognition. Hoffman, with only one PGA Tour victory on his résumé, is not as renowned but did receive supporters wearing wigs that resembled his flowing golden locks.
"To see the support [Woods] gets every week, and see how he deals with it, it's pretty impressive," Glover said. "I tried to hang on to his coattails early, but couldn't keep up."
More so than the airtight crowd, the lasting impression for Glover and Hoffman was watching Woods's talent up close. Woods shot a 6-under-par 64 -- trumping Glover's 1-under 69 and Hoffman's 1-over 71. They were both impressed by Woods's consistency.
Hoffman noted that it was not the outstanding shot that helps Woods, but the infrequency of a bad shot. While Glover bogeyed four times and Hoffman double-bogeyed and bogeyed, Woods bogeyed just once.
"Any time you can play the best in the world, put your game against his -- and see it's not where his is at right now -- it's fun to watch," Hoffman said.

Yet when Woods is involved, it is not simply 18 holes that must be accounted for, but also the uncontrollable surroundings.
Wherever Woods goes, a mass of humanity both awaits and follows. The gallery turns silent as Woods prepares for his shot. Once he finishes his follow-through, cameras provide a chorus of clicks while the crowd reacts.
Even when Woods is not shooting, he remains the center of attention. At the seventh hole, camera clicks capturing an image of Woods speaking with his caddie disrupted Hoffman's putt. When the ball dropped, Hoffman turned and motioned toward the photographers.
"I wouldn't say that's playing with Tiger," Hoffman said. "That's camera people not doing their job."
Hoffman said it's actually easier to play with Woods. Because so many fans watch, it is not noticeable when a single person moves. By crowding the ropes, the fans provide a de facto fence. And a good shot while grouped with Woods in the first round can draw similar reactions to a good shot in the U.S. Open.
"The yells, the urges on and everything were okay," Glover said. "It wasn't a hassle, as it has been before. [The U.S. Open] helped me get used to it. It was a good experience, then and now."
The threesome will return to the 10th hole at 8:12 this morning, at which point Woods will again earn top billing at his tournament. But for Glover and Hoffman, it provides an opportunity to measure their game against golf's best -- and possibly gain some of his fans, too.
"You know you're going to see good shots from Tiger, you know the crowd is going to be rooting for Tiger," Hoffman said. "But you hope you can get some people getting on your side."