Reliving Tiger Woods’ record-tying victory at the ZOZO

'I COULD FEEL HIM WATCHING'

Woods had three birdies and a bogey in the 11 holes of the final round that were played Sunday. He slept that night three shots ahead of Matsuyama. But he made a bogey when resuming the next morning and soon after stood in the 14th fairway as Matsuyama had a 5-foot birdie putt to move within a shot. The local star missed the putt and Woods would birdie the hole, setting up his 82nd triumph.

CONNERS: "I remember vividly finishing Monday morning. He was in the group behind me. There was a limited number of fans because of the rain, but on the 13th hole, a par-3, it was along the property line and there were all these fully-grown adults trying to climb the fence, or peek through the matting. I don't know if they were trying to cut little holes in it so they could see through.

"The next hole was a par-5 and there was a backup on the tee, and I was kind of nervous hitting the tee shot because Tiger was on the tee. Who knows if he was watching me, but I haven't played with him, and I was a huge Tiger fan growing up, so it was cool."

MATSUYAMA: "Playing in front of him Sunday and Monday, there was a lot of pressure. I certainly felt that. When I was putting on 14 and Tiger was waiting back in the fairway to hit his second shot just standing there, … I could feel him watching. I could feel that pressure. It was a big learning experience."

WOODLAND: "You could tell he'd not been in contention for a little while, … I guess since Augusta earlier that year. He hit one bad shot on 12 and Hideki was making a run. But from then on you can tell he kind of flipped a switch. He was kind of just on cruise control. From his bogey, it was vintage Tiger.

"At that point I was out of contention and he was trying to close. It obviously meant a lot to him to get to 82. You could tell that. I was trying to stay out of his way, but he talked the whole time on the back nine. I don't know if that's completely normal for him, but it was impressive.

"Not many guys get you to watch while you're competing but he's one of them. You want to beat him, but when the time was over, when I could tell I wasn't going to win, I was rooting for him. When he's on, his distance control is better than anybody I've ever seen and that was evident that week. It was as good as I've seen ball-striking-wise, and then he hit the shots coming down the stretch that he had to do. That's pretty special."

BRADLEY: "I was out of it so I wanted to watch him and sort of pick up on stuff that he was doing. I noticed a few things that I keep with me. … Him winning tournaments, it's so natural, so, so smooth.

"I just noticed that his gait, his pace was very much the same for all 36 holes, but mostly just how comfortable he looked and just how sort of at ease he was in the moment, which was what I expected, but it was pretty cool to see up close."

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