Tiger Woods (Image Source: Getty)

Tiger Woods won the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational after being winless on the PGA Tour for around 30 months. The American won the BMW Championship in 2009 and then had a tough time clinching his next PGA Tour title.

However, finally, in 2012, he was pretty impressive at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and registered a five-shot win over Graeme McDowell to claim the 72nd PGA Tour event of his career at that time.

Following the tournament, Tiger Woods reflected on his joy and opened up about his victory after being winless for 30 months. He said (via CNN):

“It feels really good. It has been a lot of hard work and I’m so thankful for a lot of people helping me out along the way. They all know who they are. It was incredible to have that type of support here. I used to live here for a long time and it was neat to see some friends come out to cheer me.”

Notably, it was the seventh time Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in his career. Prior to 2012, he won the championship in 2009, 2008, 2003 (when it was called the Bay Hill Invitational), 2002, 2001, and 2000. He again won the tournament in 2013 for the eighth time in his career.

When Tiger Woods opened up about his performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational 2012

Tiger Woods started his outing at the 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational with an opening round of 69. He then played the second round of 65 but struggled in the third round, posting a round of 71. He wrapped up the game with a final round of 70 and settled with a total of 13-under, registering a win in the event.

During the press conference of the tournament on March 12, 2012, he opened up about his final round performance and winning the event. He said (via ASAP Sports):

“It was just pure joy. You know, it was tough today. It was tough conditions out there, man. Wind was whipping out there. It was changing directions and intensities. Arnold did a hell of a job of getting these greens fast, and they were baked out and some of the hardest pins I’ve ever seen here,” Woods said.

“So I don’t know what the average score was today, but certainly wasn’t anywhere near par. It was a tough day. It was a very tough day. It was a day of attrition. Just got to hang in there and just keep hitting fairways and greens, and there weren’t going to be a lot of birdie opportunities out there, but when you had them, I just felt like I had to take advantage of it,” he added.

Having started playing as a professional in 1996, Tiger Woods has won 110 professional tournaments, with 82 of them coming on the PGA Tour.