Tiger Woods flailed away for 69 holes at the Memorial Tournament, playing brilliantly tee to green but a study of frustration on the greens themselves. He couldn’t make a putt or pull away from the undistinguished likes of Spencer Levin, Daniel Summerhays and Rory Sabbatini. Then, finally, a stroke of genius.
Woods’ bold, full-swing flop shot from a downhill lie to a green sloped ominously toward water landed softly on the edge and rolled 15 feet into the cup for a magical birdie 2.
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“That was the most unbelievable, gutsy shot I’ve ever seen,” Jack Nicklaus — a man rarely given to hyperbole, only the subject of it — said on CBS.
With three birdies on the final four holes, Woods came from two strokes back to win Nicklaus’ tournament for the fifth time. Few of his victories have held so much significance.
It was Woods’ 73rd PGA Tour win, matching the resume of Nicklaus. Only Sam Snead has more with 82. When Woods rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole with Nicklaus greenside, he raised his putter skyward in eerily familiar fashion. It’s the same pose Nicklaus struck when he made the signature shot of his final and most memorable victory at the 1986 Masters.
“He had to rub it in my face here, didn’t he?” Nicklaus joked.
Sunday was Woods’ most dramatic performance since he met with a fire hydrant on Thanksgiving weekend 2009. The question now: Is he back?
“I won. I’m sure by Tuesday I’ll be buried and done,” Woods told reporters. “I’ll let you guys figure that out.”
For four days at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, Woods hit the ball with — if not the power — certainly the control of his prime. On a difficult course, purposely set up to replicate U.S. Open conditions, Woods hit 73.6 percent of the greens, tied for best in the field.
“I striped it today,” Woods said. “The shape, the trajectory, the distance control — I had it all today.”
The downside was Woods’ work on the greens. He likely will be the favorite when the U.S. Open tees off June 14. But can he win the major that most demands a sure putting stroke?
– Kevin Dunleavy
