DORAL, Fla. (AP) — Even after the biggest win of a career that is starting to fill up with significant titles, Justin Rose had to share the stage with two stars who appear headed in opposite directions.

Rory McIlroy took another leap forward by nearly pulling off a remarkable rally.

Tiger Woods took a disturbing step back when a sore left Achilles tendon became too painful for him to continue. He withdrew from the final round Sunday at the Cadillac Championship, the second time in 10 months that he couldn’t finish a tournament because of his Achilles.

With the Masters just three weeks away, Woods’ future looked muddled as ever when he limped through the parking lot to a black sedan and drove away from Doral, not knowing the severity of this latest injury.

“Left leg injury,” was all he told a press officer as he drove away.

In a statement he issued about an hour later, Woods said, “I felt tightness in my left Achilles warming up this morning, and it continued to get progressively worse. After hitting my tee shot at 12, I decided it was necessary to withdraw. In the past, I may have tried to continue to play, but this time, I decided to do what I thought was necessary.”

Rose was oblivious to all this.

He started the final day three shots behind Bubba Watson. He went to the back nine two shots behind PGA champion Keegan Bradley. When he scrambled for bogey on the final hole of the Blue Monster to stay one shot ahead, Rose thought he had won the tournament upon hearing someone in the crowd say that Watson had hit into the water.

Instead, he had to wait for Watson to hit a bullet 4-iron out of the palm trees, over a corner of the water and onto the green to just inside 10 feet for a chance at birdie to force a playoff.

As wild as this day turned out to be, Rose left nothing to chance. He went over to the practice range to stay loose, and only when he heard nothing — no cheers for a birdie putt — did he realise that Watson had missed the putt and Rose had captured his first World Golf Championship title.

“These moments are incredibly sweet,” Rose said.

Rose figured he would need a score much lower than 2-under 70 to have any chance of winning at Doral, especially after spending the first three days with Watson.

“That’s the way I saw the day playing out,” he said.

Not many could have seen a Sunday script quite like this.