Notebook: the Memorial Tournament, Round 4

text size

DUBLIN, Ohio -- Making his 243rd career PGA TOUR start and playing in his 888th round, Tiger Woods posted Sunday's round of the day with a 7-under 65 to win the Memorial Tournament with a four-day total of 12-under 276, one stroke ahead of Jim Furyk (69). It is the 67th victory of his career and the second of the season (Arnold Palmer Invitational). Woods is third all-time on the TOUR wins list, behind Sam Snead (82) and Jack Nicklaus (73).

• Woods was a perfect 14 of 14 in fairways hit on Sunday, the first time since the second round of the 2003 Arnold Palmer Invitational that he failed to miss a fairway. Woods was 49 of 56 (87.5 percent) in fairways hit this week, equaling the best mark of his career as a professional.

• Out of Woods' 67 career wins (64 of which were stroke-play events), he has come from behind to win 20 times, including a comeback in the 54-hole Mercedes-Benz Championship in 1997. This season he wiped out a five-stroke deficit to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a four-stroke deficit to win the Memorial.

• Woods has now won 19 out of his last 35 starts on the PGA TOUR (54 percent), dating back to the 2006 British Open.

• With the victory, Woods collects 500 FedExCup points and moves to No. 4 in the standings with 1,449 points. Zach Johnson (1,609) maintains the top spot for the fourth consecutive week, followed closely by Geoff Ogilvy (1,511 points) and Steve Stricker (1,497 points).

• Woods has now made the cut in all 11 starts at the Memorial Tournament, with seven top-4 finishes. He is the first four-time winner of the event (1999-2001, 2009), breaking out of a tie with three-time winner Kenny Perry.

• Woods entered the final round four strokes back on Sunday for the 12th time in his career. Three of those deficits were turned into victories: 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, 1997 Mercedes-Benz Championship and the 2009 Memorial Tournament.

• Woods remains the only player to successfully defend a title at the Memorial, following up his first win in 1999 with victories the following two seasons.

• The runner-up finish for Jim Furyk is the 21st of his career and comes in his 400th career start on the PGA TOUR. The 13-time TOUR winner has posted five top-10 finishes at Muirfield Village, including a win in 2002 and runner-up finish in 1997. Sunday marked his sixth top-10 finish of the season in 12 starts. His previous-best finish this season was third at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship.

• With third-round leaders Mark Wilson and Matt Bettencourt failing to win on Sunday, the 54-hole leader has won 16 of 34 times (47 percent) at the Memorial Tournament, most recently Carl Pettersson in 2006.

• The third-round leader/co-leader has won 16 of 23 events (70 percent) on the PGA TOUR this season. Last year, the third-round leader/co-leader only won 22 of 46 events (48 percent). The seven tournaments that have produced come-from-behind winners this season are listed below:

• Mark Wilson (73/T3) is now two for three when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead. Earlier he carried the 54-hole lead/co-lead on to victory at the 2009 Mayakoba Golf Classic and the 2007 Honda Classic.

• Third-round co-leader Matt Bettencourt (75/T5) was hoping to become the first player to win the Memorial Tournament in his first start (not including the inaugural 1976 event won by Roger Maltbie).

• The Memorial Tournament still has the distinction of having the longest active playoff drought on the PGA TOUR. The tournament has not had a playoff since 1992, when David Edwards defeated Rick Fehr with a par on the second playoff hole.

• A total of 61 players who teed it up at the Memorial Tournament are scheduled to participate in the 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier at Brookside Golf & Country Club in Columbus on Monday.

• Luke Donald, winner of the 1999 Jack Nicklaus Award given annually to the nation's top collegiate golfer, tied for 14th. It represented his ninth top-25 finish in 12 starts this season. A runner-up finish at the Verizon Heritage is Donald's best showing among four top-10 finishes.

• Steve Stricker, winner of last week's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, tied for 27th in his 10th start at the Memorial Tournament. He posted his best finish at the Memorial in 1996 (13th).

• Kenny Perry made his 16th straight made cut at the Memorial this week, tying him with Hale Irwin. Scott Hoch leads the list with 17 straight made cuts from 1981-97.

• Perry posted two rounds at par or better this week (first-round 72, final-round 68) to move into second place on the Memorial's all-time list with 51 career rounds at par or better. Jay Haas leads the category with 68.

• Reinier Saxton, the 2008 British Amateur champion, finished T53 in his attempt to post the Memorial's best-ever finish by an amateur (Jim Holtgrieve, T35, 1981).

• Just six international-born players have won the Memorial Tournament over the 34-year history of the event. The list includes K.J. Choi (South Korea, 2007), Carl Pettersson (Sweden, 2006), Ernie Els (South Africa, 2004), Vijay Singh (Fiji, 1997), Greg Norman (Australia, 1990, 1995) and David Graham (Australia, 1980).

• The only player in the Memorial Tournament's history to lead after the first round and go on to win the event was Ernie Els in 2004 (68-70-66-66 -- 270). The tournament has never had a wire-to-wire winner.

• Jerry Kelly (67) posted the only bogey-free round on Sunday.

• Dating to 1991, this week's 73.425 cumulative average is the second highest at the Memorial Tournament, trailing only last year's 74.397.

• The par-4 18th hole played the toughest this week, yielding a 4.343 average. The par-5 seventh hole played the easiest at 4.698.