The Live Report, Round 4: Arnold Palmer Invitational

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Sean O'Hair saw a 5-shot lead over Tiger Woods disappear in the dust of another Tiger Woods comeback Sunday.

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Arnold Palmer Invitational

PGATOUR.COM's The Live Report is on the scene at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard and we'll provide updates all day long for each round, so check back often. (All timestamps are Eastern Time.) PGA TOUR Shot Tracker | Live Scoring | PGA TOUR Network | Facebook | Twitter

ANOTHER TIGER MOMENT (7:50 p.m.): True story: I instant messaged a colleague of mine moments before Tiger was to take a putt that would win him the Arnold Palmer Invitational. I said, "He's gonna miss it," mostly because Woods had backed off the putt once and daylight was fading. Foolish.

Woods drained a dramatic 16-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole -- only the seventh on No. 18 all day -- to win at Bay Hill for a second year in a row. And he did it in the disappearing light, flashbulbs popping in the Orlando dusk as he gave us another one of those Tiger moments and Tiger fist pumps.

The win gives Woods a six-pack of victories at Arnie's place and it also matches the largest final-round comeback of his career, a five-shot deficit that was erased by one miraculous shot after another. It's also his first victory since last June when he won the U.S. Open over Rocco Mediate in a dramatic sudden-death playoff after enduring an 18-hole playoff. You just can't doubt Woods. Not here. Not anywhere. -- Brian Wacker

NOT THIS TIME (7:32 p.m.): Tiger Woods left himself another ridiculously impossible bunker shot, after his tee shot on No. 17 plugged nearly up against the lip. Unlike 14, however, he was unable to get up-and-down for par. A bogey on the hole and a par by Sean O'Hair has the two even as they move to the 18th -- the same hole Woods birdied last year to win by a stroke over Bart Bryant. He'll need to do that again to win -- though only six birdies have been made on 18 all day -- or else they might run out of daylight. -- Brian Wacker

ALL WET (7:16 p.m.): Things just went from bad to worse for Sean O'Hair, who just rinsed his approach shot on the 16th hole. It feels like last year's THE PLAYERS Championship all over again, where O'Hair, a little amped up, pumped one right over the flag on 17 and into the water. This time, O'Hair shouted at his ball to go. It didn't. It hit the slope short of the green and bounced back into the water. For good measure, Tiger Woods stuffed his third-shot approach to 3 feet and made another clutch par, this time for the lead. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER TIED FOR THE LEAD (6:55 p.m.): Mark it down, at 6:55 p.m. ET, Tiger Woods tied for the lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational with, what else, a 25-foot birdie putt. It was actually about a foot longer than the one he made on the 18th to win last year, but you get the idea. Woods is now at 5 under, having erased the five-shot deficit he began the day with. Again, is there anybody you'd want putting the ball when a tournament is hanging in the balance other than Woods? I wouldn't even take Brad Faxon. -- Brian Wacker

TYPICAL TIGER (6:40 p.m.): On the 14th hole with a chance to put the hammer down on Tiger Woods and take possibly a two-stroke lead, Sean O'Hair hit a birdie putt that was so perfect it looked in all the way -- until it slid just by the hole.

That opened the door for Woods, who had another one of those Tiger-like moments with an impossibly difficult putt from 13 feet. Tricky to read with it seemingly breaking all over the place, Woods rolled in a huge par putt to stay just one back of O'Hair. Has there been a better par putter in the history of golf? -- Brian Wacker

LOGJAM FOR THIRD (6:20 p.m.): With Sean O'Hair and Tiger Woods a few shots clear of their nearest competitors, there's a serious race for third going on with seven players tied at 1 under at the moment. John Senden and Nick Watney are the closest to the clubhouse, while Daniel Chopra, Pat Perez, Padraig Harrington , Ryuji Imada and Zach Johnson are all right there as well.

That race might be as interesting as the race between O'Hair and Woods with a lot of money and FedExCup points up for grabs. -- Brian Wacker

O'MEARA DENIED (6:05 p.m.): Mark O'Meara will just have to hope that his good pal Tiger Woods can finish one better than he did.

At the Champions Tour's Cap Cana Championship in the Dominican Republic, O'Meara lost by one stroke to Keith Fergus thanks to the Texan's heroics on the penultimate hole.

The pair held a share of the lead at the start of the round, but O'Meara then took over and seemed to be headed toward his first Champions Tour victory.

Andy Bean, who began the day in a tie for ninth before firing a 7-under 65 -- which included two birdies on the final two holes -- jumped into a share of the lead with O'Meara as the tournament wound down.

Then Fergus, who'd rattled off birdies on Nos. 12-15, eagled the par-4 17th to leapfrog O'Meara and Bean with just one hole to go.

Fergus and O'Meara parred the 18th, which meant Fergus notched his second win on the Champions Tour. -- Lauren Deason

MANO Y MANO (5:45 p.m.): Even though there are a number of players within striking distance of Sean O'Hair, you get the feeling this is shaping up as a two-horse race between O'Hair and Tiger Woods. With that in mind, let's take a look at how the two have played the back nine this week prior to today.

Woods is a combined 4 under with eight birdies and four bogeys. O'Hair, meanwhile, is a total of 6 under on the final nine with nine birdies and three bogeys. All of those bogeys, however, came yesterday and they came on three of the final four holes. You have to wonder if that will be in the back of his mind today. -- Brian Wacker

CHOPRA IN THE HOUSE (5:30 p.m.): Daniel Chopra is healthy now and appears to be heading for his first top-10 finish since he won the Mercedes-Benz Championship to start the 2008 season.

The Swede has had a difficult 2009 campaign to date as he tried to play through a virus. Chopra, who is a member here at Bay Hill, tied for 27th in his title defense at Kapalua, then missed the cut in four of his next five starts and had to withdraw in the other. His last event on TOUR was the Northern Trust Open where he tied for 72nd. This home game seems to suit Chopra, though. He is 2 under through 13 holes on Sunday and tied for fifth. -- Helen Ross

O'HAIR FINALLY MAKES BIRDIE (5:15 p.m.): It took a while, but Sean O'Hair finally made his first birdie in his last 14 holes after putting up a couple of bogeys early today. That gives O'Hair, who is looking for his third career win on the PGA TOUR, a little breathing room.

O'Hair leads Tiger Woods by 2 now after seeing the lead cut to just 1, while John Senden is 4 back. The back nine is playing nearly 1.4 strokes over par and the lone par-5 comes early at No. 12, so you wouldn't expect a lot of birdies the rest of the way, but there are some out there. -- Brian Wacker

OTHERS LURKING (5:01 p.m.): Seven players are within four strokes of Sean O'Hair, including John Senden, who has the day's best round going at 5 under after rolling in his fifth birdie of the day on No. 12.

Senden is only two back at the moment and if he can post another birdie or two and get in the clubhouse early, things could get awfully interesting down the stretch. As it is, things are looking better than good for Tiger Woods, who knows how to close the deal here is still just one back of O'Hair as they get ready to make the turn. -- Brian Wacker

Here's a look at Senden's scorecard so far:

GORE LURKING (4:55 p.m.): Jason Gore admittedly had a pretty frustrating finish to his third round.

The affable man from California had to regroup after his caddy tripped on a sprinkler head and fell down at 17th hole just before he was about to putt. Gore proceeded to miss the short par putt there and later went on to three-putt from 5 feet at No. 18 to drop back to 1 under.

He's in the penultimate group on Sunday, as a result. And Gore is making a move, too -- two-putting the par-5 sixth from 90 feet for birdie and knocking down the flag at the seventh hole and making a 4-footer for another to move to 2 under for the tournament. -- Helen Ross

THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING LEAD (4:45 p.m.): Thanks to his second bogey of the day, Sean O'Hair has dropped to 5 under on the week and is now only one shot ahead of Tiger Woods, who has three birdies and one bogey in a 2-under round.

The world's No. 1 isn't the only player in striking distance, however. John Senden and Ryuji Imada are both three strokes back. -- Brian Wacker

TIGER AND STEVIE (4:20 p.m.): A side note to Tiger Woods is that this week marks the 10-year anniversary of Woods and caddie Steve Williams working together.

Woods finished T56 that week in 1999, closing out his week with three straight rounds of 72 in the duo's first tournament together. It didn't take long for the two to jell, however. Woods won in his sixth event with Williams on the bag, capturing the Memorial Tournament.

Woods won six more times on the PGA TOUR that year and began a run of four straight titles at Bay Hill the following season. -- Brian Wacker

REVISITING TIGER'S BIGGEST COMEBACK (4:00 p.m.): If Tiger Woods can find a way to erase the three-shot deficit he currently faces and go on to win, it would match the biggest final-round comeback of his career.

Woods

That took place at Pebble Beach in 2000, where Woods erased a five-shot deficit with a final-round 64 to beat Matt Gogel and Vijay Singh by two strokes. At one point in that round, Woods was actually 7 back with seven holes to play before the rally was on with an eagle-birdie-par-birdie finish.

Woods might need something similar today and given his track record at Bay Hill, it's possible. Five times in his career, Woods has shot 65 or lower here. In 2007, he shot an opening-round 64, while in '03 he shot a second-round 65. Woods also posted a 65 in the second round in '02 and had two other 64s -- in the second round in '00 and the first round in '98. -- Brian Wacker

O'HAIR GIVES ONE BACK (3:35 p.m.): Sean O'Hair wasn't able to get up-and-down for par a couple of minutes ago and dropped back to 6 under as a result. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods holed his birdie putt and is now just two back and within striking distance to match the biggest comeback of his PGA TOUR career -- a five-shot rally in the final round of the 2000 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Not to be outdone, John Sended has rocketed up the leaderboard with four straight birdies, moving to 2 under for the week. -- Brian Wacker

DON'T LOOK NOW (3:30 p.m.): Tiger Woods is starting to put the pressure on leader Sean O'Hair. After hitting it tight to set up a birdie on the par-3 second, Woods just stuffed his approach shot on No. 3, leaving him another likely birdie.

Meanwhile, O'Hair, who parred the first two holes, missed the fairway right off the tee on No. 3 then missed the green right on his approach. He's got a makeable par putt, but we could be looking at a two-shot swing. -- Brian Wacker

GLOVER MAKES A MOVE (3:05 p.m.): Lucas Glover climbed from T10 into a tie for third place with birdies on two of his first three holes today.

Glover rolled in a birdie putt from 13 feet on No. 1 then followed with another on No. 2 by sinking one from just over 8 feet. He just missed a third straight birdie when his putt from 24 feet on No. 3 slid by the hole.

Glover is now 1 under for the tournament, becoming only the sixth player in the field to slip below par for the week. If he can hold onto third he would match his best finish of the season, a T3 at the Buick Invitational, where he shot a final-round 68. -- Brian Wacker

FEDEXCUP UPDATE (2:45 p.m.): Sean O'Hair is averaging just over 65 FedExCup points per start this season and is currently 14th in the standings, but could climb as high as fourth with a win this week, which would net him 500 points.

O'Hair's closest pursuer, Tiger Woods, meanwhile would move as high as 11th with a win. Woods ranks 110th in the standiungs through two starts, which is his lowest ranking through two starts since the FedExCup began. In his first two starts in the first two years of the FedExCup, he ranked in the top six both times. -- Brian Wacker

A sip of Maginnes

WORDS OF ADVICE (2:35 p.m.):There may be nothing harder in all of sports than trying to win a golf tournament on the PGA TOUR. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of players who claim victory at the last moment. But to win by outplaying everyone else requires a type of confidence that few can muster. Few in the game know that better than Vijay Singh. Even fewer know what it is like to stare down the best player in the world and come out on top. Vijay is one of that elite handful as well. Sean O'Hair is trying to join that illustrious group today. As Vijay was making his way across the back of the driving range, he stopped where Sean was warming up. Sean stopped hitting balls and Vijay shook his hand. The words exchanged could only be heard by the two of them, but the message was clear from the expression on both of their faces: You can do this, stick to your guns, believe in yourself. Those may not have been the actual words -- knowing Vijay, there was probably more to it than that. But the sentiment and the moment epitomize what it means to be a professional golfer today. -- John Maginnes

WEATHER UPDATE (2:15 p.m.): It's raining again -- heavy but quick -- at Bay Hill. Fortunately, there is no lightning. As it is, players are going to be up against it trying to finish the final round before darkness sets in. Any more delays would put that in serious jeopardy. -- Brian Wacker

BIRDIE RUN (2:00 p.m.): Mike Weir has birdied his last three holes to get to 3 under on the day and 2 over for the tournament. The eight-time PGA TOUR winner rolled in putts of 7, 10 and 17 feet on Nos. 12, 13 and 14, but more importantly the course is showing that it's giving some strokes back to the players after taking several from them the last few days.

Yesterday, just four players cracked par with the low score belonging to Brandt Snedeker at 3 under. Today, a dozen players are already under par at the moment. -- Brian Wacker

TELEVISION UPDATE PART II (1:50 p.m.): NBC has now decided to carry the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard to its conclusion on Sunday. -- Helen Ross

TIGER'S PUTTING (1:35 p.m.): One of the most telling stats of the week for Tiger Woods is that he's made just three putts from over 10 feet the entire tournament. One of those was that 25-footer he made on 18 yesterday to save bogey. On the flip side, Woods has made 48 of 51 putts from inside 10 feet.

That's a good news-bad news deal for Woods. Good news that he's been nearly perfect from 10 feet and in, bad news that he usually makes a few more long putts. -- Brian Wacker

FROM THE TWITTER (1:20 p.m.): Stewart Cink has upped his "coolness" factor by embracing social-networking site Twitter (seetwitter.com/stewartcink), but apparently he's not as cool as the Ottawa Senators' Mike Fisher. This, from Cink's Twitter feed last night: "Thrashers continue rolling with win over Ottawa. Side note: Ottawa player Mike Fisher dates Carrie Underwood, which ups hockey's coolness!" -- Brian Wacker

CHANGE IN CONDITIONS, CHANGE IN SCORES (1:10 p.m.): It's still a little early, but if the first handful of groups on the course is any indication, scoring will be much lower than it has been the past few days. With rain softening the golf course, six players are already under par today with birdies on either the first or 10th hole.

Bay Hill will still play tough today -- especially if you miss the fairway and have to play from thick, wet rough -- but it sure looks like a lot more birdies will be possible. -- Brian Wacker

TELEVISION SCHEDULE UPDATE (12:55 p.m.): Due to the weather delay, NBC will extend its broadcast of the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard by an hour until 7 p.m. -- Helen Ross

O'HAIR'S BIGGEST LEAD (12:45 p.m.): The final round is finally underway at Bay Hill, where sunset will take place at 7:42 p.m. Mark Russell, the PGA TOUR's VP of Rules says play is scheduled to conclude about 10 minutes after that. Let's hope so. Otherwise, a handful of players are going to have to return in the morning to mop up the last couple of holes.

As for leader Sean O'Hair, this is the biggest lead he's ever had going into a round and the fourth time in his career that he has lead or co-lead after 54 holes. Check out the chart below for a breakdown of how he's finished in those situations. -- Brian Wacker

OPEN FOR BUSINESS (12:25 p.m.): The range at the Bay Hill Lodge and Club has been opened so players can begin warming up for the final round of the Bay Hill Invitational. The first groups are set to tee of Nos. 1 and 10 at 12:43 p.m. ET with Sean O'Hair, Tiger Woods and Zach Johnson set to tee off at 2:49 p.m.

One other interesting note -- the final round will not be contested under lift, clean and place rules. The pros will be playing the ball down. "Absolutely," quipped Mark Russell, VP of Rules, Competition and Administration for the PGA TOUR, to GOLF CHANNEL's Steve Sands. "Play real golf." -- Helen Ross

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Players   12:21 pm ET No. 1 Daniel Chopra, Padraig Harrington, Lee Janzen Harrington's bid for a third straight major crown is just over the horizon. Is his game ready for mighty Augusta? 12:54 pm ET No. 1 Ryuji Imada, Jason Gore, Brandt Snedeker After a tough start to 2009, Snedeker is starting to heat up. Can he follow up his Saturday 67 with another strong round? 1:05 pm ET No. 1 Sean O'Hair, Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson Can Woods make up a five-shot deficit? Can O'Hair put away the world No. 1? The answer's blowin' in the wind.