Tiger Woods has found the momentum he craves as he heads towards trying to claim an 82nd PGA TOUR win at another of his favorite venues.
While never in contention for a sixth title at Muirfield Village, Woods capped off his performance at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide with the best round of his week, a 5-under 67.
It pushed him into a T9 finish at 9-under 279 in Ohio, but just as importantly gave him added the confidence that he can tie Sam Snead’s 82 TOUR wins, and claim a 16th major championship at the upcoming US Open at Pebble Beach.
Woods won the 2000 US Open at Pebble by an astonishing 15 strokes, having already won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am earlier that season. Starting Sunday at the Memorial 11 shots off the lead, he switched to preparation mode.
‘Going into today I was never going to win the tournament, but I was hoping I could get something positive going into the (US) Open, and I was able to accomplish that, which is great, and get some nice positive momentum going into a nice practice week,’ said Woods, who was 7-under on his round and 11-under on the week.
‘Overall it was a great day. I hit the ball really well and made some nice putts. Each day I got a little more crisp.’
Woods hit 12 of 14 fairways on Sunday and hit the first 12 greens in regulation before cooling off for a 14 out of 18 total.
After his Masters victory in April, Woods didn’t play again until the PGA Championship, where rust contributed to a missed cut.
Woods was tripped up by a handful of big mistakes at Muirfield, with double bogeys halting great runs on both Friday and Saturday. He knows he can’t afford those mistakes from now on.
‘I didn’t keep the card as clean as I’d like. I drove it great this week. I hit the tee shots I wanted to. I hit a couple of loose iron shots. And fairway bunker game wasn’t very good, caught a couple of lips coming out of there,’ he added.
‘But 14 is a perfect example, two wedges the last couple of days, and walked away with two bogeys. Those are loose things that you can’t afford to have happen in a (US) Open. I just need to clean up the rounds and make sure I don’t drop two shots. I made a couple of doubles this week, and those hurt.’
