Scott, the old man at the top of the leaderboard at 31, did so with Steve Williams, a guy who seems to know how to win here, on his bag. Williams, fired last month byTiger Woods, won for the eighth time at Firestone — seven with Woods and now with Scott. As the two walked up the 18th fairway with victory in hand, the overflow crowds were chanting as much for Williams as they were for Scott, who wrapped up the win with a short birdie putt to shoot 5-under-par 65 and finish at 17-under 263.
Scott was pretty satisfied with his performance. The overnight leader by one, Scott was playing with Ryo Ishikawa, 19, and had Rickie Fowler, 22, Jason Day, 23, and Keegan Bradley, 25, on his heels. But with birdies on holes 10, 12 and 14, and a huge par save on the 15th, Scott opened up a four-shot lead. The cushion was more than enough as he finished four shots clear of Fowler and world No. 1 Luke Donald— and became the first player using a long putter to win a WGC event. Day and Ishikawa finished in a tie for fourth.
"It was a great day on the golf course," said Scott, who now has 18 worldwide wins — and one with a long putter. "I went to the range and had the best warm up of the week. I wasn't feeling 100% with the golf swing, and today I felt 100%. So I was confident going to the course. I just had to kind of control myself a little bit and stay patient and not get ahead of myself.
"So went out there with a good strategy and played a solid front nine and not much happened, but started hitting some good shots on the back nine, chipping in on 12, all these good things happen when you win.
"I played at a very high level today given the circumstances. Not everything was perfect. I hit a few loose shots, but I was pretty sharp. It was like what we're used to seeing when Tiger closes out tournaments. He gets in front and just won't let anyone in."
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