The Memorial Tournament, Round 4
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
TIGER TAKES THE TITLE (5:50 p.m.): Is there a better closer in all of golf? Apparently not. Tiger Woods birdied No. 17, then stuffed his approach shot to kick-in range on the 18th to set up another birdie and a two-shot lead that would turn into a -shot win.
For the second time this year, Woods won coming from behind on Sunday, shooting a 65 that was about as perfect as could be. Woods hit all 14 fairways and played with the kind of accuracy that won him the 2006 British Open, where he led the field in driving accuracy and was second in greens in regulation. He put up similar numbers this week, finishing second in fairways hit and third in greens in regulation.
It's the 20th come-from-behind victory on Sunday of Woods' career and second of the season with him having erased a five-shot deficit in the final round at Bay Hill in March. It's also the 67th victory of Woods' career with four of them coming at the Memorial.
Surely, adding loft to his driver, choking down on some of his tee shots and hitting an iron off the tee on the 18th all contributed to his victory, but the best way to sum up Woods' win is that he was always close this year and this week he was pretty much perfect. Even on holes that had haunted him all year -- Woods was a combined 7 over on holes 16, 17 and 18 this season -- he made the shots he needed when it mattered the most, playing that stretch in 2 under on Sunday.
Woods was way better than close this week. He's back, all the way back. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER ON TOP (5:21 p.m.): Like Kobe Bryant in the NBA Playoffs, Tiger Woods can smell the finish line and he has that look about him after rolling in a 9-foot birdie on No. 17, giving the ball the signature point when it was halfway to the hole. That gave Woods a one-shot lead over Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and Jonathan Byrd as we play the last couple of holes. -- Brian Wacker
PLAYOFF LOOMING? (5 p.m.): We're down to the last few holes and unless someone makes a birdie coming in, we could be headed for a playoff at the Memorial with Tiger Woods, Davis Love III and Jim Furyk all tied for the lead at 10 under. The last time we went extra holes here was more than 15 years ago when David Edwards beat Rick Fehr. That's the longest drought of any tournament on the PGA TOUR. If things do go to overtime, the sudden-death playoff holes, in order, would be 18, 15, 16, 17 and 18 again. -- Brian Wacker
BYE, BYE OGILVY (4:40 p.m.): If there was one guy ahead of Tiger Woods on the leaderboard that stood in his way, it was probably Geoff Ogilvy. Now, it's just Jonathan Byrd (literally). That's because Ogilvy just played himself out of contention with a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 14th hole. Ogilvy sailed his approach shot on the 369-yard hole long and then had all sorts of trouble around the green. He left his chip from the rough short, then chipped through the green, then scraped it around and eventually rolled in a 5-footer for the snowman.
That dropped Ogilvy to 5 under on the week and out of contention. Not long after, Tiger Woods poured in a birdie on the same hole after reaching the green in two. That moved him into the lead and one step closer to his fourth career Memorial title. -- Brian Wacker
BYRD IS THE WORD (4:15 p.m.): Jonathan Byrd continues to play well and has emerged from a tight pack to sit atop the leaderboard with six holes to go in his round.
Byrd began his move to the top with a birdie on the par-4 sixth hole then followed that with a hole-out eagle from the fairway on the par-5 seventh. Since then, Byrd has added four pars and another birdie as he tries to hold off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, both two back at the moment.
If he wins, it'll be his first victory since the 2007 John Deere Classic and fourth of his career. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER'S ACCURACY CONTINUES (3:35 p.m.): Tiger Woods has hit every fairway and 9 of his first 11 greens in regulation and that includes the par-5 11th, where he just chipped in for eagle to get to 10 under and within one of the lead. -- Brian Wacker
Here's a breakdown of Tiger's accuracy so far this week:
| Tiger Woods: Inside the numbers (through 9 today) | |||||||||||||||
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EAGLE LANDS FOR BYRD (3:15 p.m.): Tiger Woods has put himself in good position, playing his first nine holes in 3 under today, but Jonathan Byrd just moved to the top of the leaderboard, holing out for eagle from 82 yards on the par-5 seventh to get to 3 under on his round and 11 under for the week.
Byrd has had a difficult couple of years on and off the course with his dad, Jim, battling brain cancer, but he's played well this season with four top-15s. If he keeps hitting fairways and greens the way he has so far -- he's fourth in fairways hit and second in greens in regulation this week -- Byrd is going to add his first win in nearly two years. -- Brian Wacker
LEADERBOARD UPDATE (3:05 p.m.): Tiger Woods' place among the leaders was short-lived -- for now anyway. Woods made his first bogey of the day on the par-3 eighth, where he was indecisive on club selection and then hit a 7-iron that found the rough short and left of the flag. He was unable to get up-and-down to save par. -- Brian Wacker
FIVE TIED AT THE TOP (2:55 p.m.): Tiger Woods is now tied for the lead for the first time this week at the Memorial, where he's 4 under through his first seven holes today. Matt Bettencourt just made his first bogey of the day, which came on the par-5 fifth and as a result fell back to 9 under with Woods, Mark Wilson, Geoff Ogilvy and Davis Love III. -- Brian Wacker
CHASING THE LEADER (2:45 p.m.): The final group is through its first four holes and though Matt Bettencourt has moved into the lead by himself, he and Mark Wilson are holding their own in what's clearly an underdog story with Tiger Woods, Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Davis Love III all chasing from close behind.
Bettencourt hasn't missed a fairway, has three pars and one birdie. Wilson also had a birdie at the third hole, but bogeyed the par-4 fourth to fall back to even on the day.
Of course with Woods having just made his fourth birdie on the front nine, Bettencourt and Wilson may play well and still lose. That's what sometimes happens when you know who can smell the lead on Sundays. -- Brian Wacker
TWEET OF THE DAY (2:20 p.m.): SI.com golf and NFL writer Damon Hack said I had to be joking when I "tweeted" that Pete Sampras was still better than Roger Federer, who tied Sampras' record for 14 career majors with his first French Open victory today. That led to me posing the question of who's more dominant in their respective sport right now -- Tiger Woods, Federer or Kobe Bryant. Hack said he was taking Tiger because "winning Masters by 12, U.S. Open by 15 and British by 8? That's once in a lifetime type stuff." I'd have to agree, and Woods may be about to add to his legacy after making his third birdie in his first five holes to get to within two of the lead.
Follow Tiger's round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. To further the Tiger/Federer/Kobe debate, follow me on Twitter (@pgatour_brianw) by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker
FINAL PAIRING ON THE COURSE (1:55 p.m.): Matt Bettencourt and Mark Wilson teed off a few minutes ago, each making par on the opening hole. With a one-shot lead, it'll be interesting to see how the two men handle being in the spotlight, especially with Tiger Woods just having made his second birdie of the day to pull within two.
Bettencourt is a rookie on the PGA TOUR and has never won out here. Wilson, meanwhile, has two career victories, including one earlier this season in Cancun. Both have hit a ton of fairways and a ton of greens this week and they'll need to continue to do that to stave off a who's-who list of players behind them, including Woods, Geoff Ogilvy, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els and Davis Love III. -- Brian Wacker
MACKENZIE ON THE MOVE (1:35 p.m.): Will MacKenzie is headed toward what looks like will be his best result in three months. The two-time PGA TOUR winner has missed four of his last six cuts and has finished in the top 50 just once since a tie for fifth at The Honda Classic, but he's moving up the leaderboard today with a round of 4 under through his first 10 holes. That has MacKenzie, who hasn't broken 70 in his last 25 rounds on TOUR, in a tie for 14th at the moment. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER IS OFF (1:15 p.m.): Tiger Woods just teed off in the fourth-to-last group of the day and split the fairway with a perfect 3-wood. As soon as he hit it, he gave the club that little Tiger twirl, which he does anytime he likes it. Woods talked about needing to get off to a fast start today and though it's only one shot, it looked pretty much perfect. Now we'll have to see if it's an indication of things to come from the three-time Memorial winner. Click here to follow his round live with Shot Tracker. -- Brian Wacker
KEY STAT (1:10 p.m.): Want more proof that proximity to the hole is one of the most important (and often overlooked) stats on the PGA TOUR? A big part of Geoff Ogilvy's success has to do with how close he's hitting his approach shots, too. The first two rounds, he averaged just over 34 and 48 feet, respectively. In his round of 63 yesterday, he average 19 feet, 2 inches while hitting 15 of 18 greens in regulation. -- Brian Wacker
A LOOK AT THE FUTURE (12:55 p.m.): About three hours before the leaders of the Memorial Tournament were to tee off, Jack Nicklaus met with a future generation of pros at Muirfield Village.
The four recipients of the Jack Nicklaus Award -- N.C. State's Matt Hill (Division I), Valdosta State's Brent Witcher (Division II), Mitchell Fedorka of La Verne (Division III) and Point Loma Nazarene's Sam Cyr (NAIA) -- were introduced at a press conference Sunday morning.
Hill is the second player in NCAA history to win his conference tournament, an NCAA regional and the NCAA title. The other? None other than Tiger Woods, who accomplished the trifecta in 1986 when he was a student at Stanford.
The NCAA title was the eighth of the season for Hill, who eclipsed the previous Atlantic Coast Conference record for wins in a season by three and is believed to have established the NCAA mark. The N.C. State sophomore grew up in the same town as Mike Weir.
"He was my idol growing up," Hill said. "I met him when I was 10 years old. I got to watch him hit balls and ever since that time I have wanted to do the same thing."
Witcher is a two-time Gulf South Conference Player of the Year. His scoring average this year was 71 as he won twice and posted eight total top-10s this season. He plans to turn pro after the summer.
Fedorka, a rising senior for the Leopards, tied for second at the recent NCAA Division III tournament. He won three times this year and only finished out of the top 10 twice.
Cyr, who also plans to turn pro in the fall, won the Jack Nicklaus Award for the second straight year. His five victories this season brought the four-time All-American's career total to 12.
"Sam came all the way from Hawaii," Nicklaus said with a smile as he handed the trophy to Cyr. "He told me the last time he had a tie on was here." -- Helen Ross
EARLY INDICATORS (12:45 p.m.): If the early scores are any indication, the leaders are going to be tested by Muirfield Village's speedy greens on this breezy Sunday. Only 11 of the first 52 players on the course are under par with defending champ Kenny Perry, Nick Watney and Jerry Kelly making the biggest gains at 4 under through 16, 10 and 13 holes, respectively. -- Helen Ross
IS IT DAVIS' DAY? (12:35 p.m.): Davis Love III can avoid tomorrow's U.S. Open qualifier by doing one simple thing: winning today. It's certainly a possibility with Love entering the final round just two off the lead, even if he's never won this tournament before.
"A lot of times I've been playing for top 50s or making teams and stuff, and it's gotten in my way, " Love said. "I did say that I was going to play this week and do everything I could to play well this week and then let whatever happens on Monday happen. I think last year here I spent so much time going back and forth to the other courses and preparing myself to play the Open qualifying and mentally thinking about Open qualifying that it affected the way I played here.
"But I'm not racing over there every afternoon and playing and worrying about what's going to happen."
Love has played well this week -- "scoring" as he put it just a little while ago in an interview with GOLF CHANNEL. Indeed. He's 53rd in the field in putting and 41st in fairways hit, but he keeps finding ways to get the ball in the hole, whether that's chipping in for birdie, or bombing in a 25-footer the way he did on No. 17 on Thursday. -- Brian Wacker
INSIDE THE NUMBERS (12:15 p.m.): One reason this is the first time we're seeing Matt Bettencourt in the lead entering Sunday is because coming into this week, the rookie ranked 178th on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation. This week, he's tied for 10th in the field, hitting nearly 70 percent of his greens in regulation (see chart below).
Bettencourt also had eight birdies yesterday -- a career-best for one round -- and most impressively, three of those came on the last four holes, including on the difficult 17th and 18th holes. And in sometimes one of the more overlooked stats on TOUR, his average distance to the pin yesterday was just 22 feet, 8 inches. Whether Bettencourt can keep that up today, we'll know in just over an hour from now when he tees off. -- Brian Wacker
| Matt Bettencourt: Proximity to the hole this week | ||||||||||||
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LOOK WHO'S LURKING (12 p.m.): Matt Bettencourt and Mark Wilson share a one-shot lead going into today's final round of the Memorial Tournament, but the elephant in the room -- or I suppose the Tiger in this case -- is sitting just four shots back and there's no question a lot of eyes will be on him as he tries for a fourth career win at Muirfield Village in what's been his most accurate week of the year.
Tiger Woods has come from behind on Sunday to win 19 times in his PGA TOUR career (see chart below). Will today be the 20th? Well, his lone victory this year was from six back at Bay Hill, so it's certainly within reach. If he takes 32 putts the way he did yesterday, though, it won't be.
"I have to play well. That's the difference between being out front and trailing," Woods said yesterday. "If you're out front, you play poorly, getting off to a poor start, you can still win the golf tournament. If you're trailing and you get off to a poor start, you can play yourself out of the golf tournament.
"I need to get off to a better start like I did today, get it going early, and see where it puts me throughout the day."
The front nine here has more birdie opportunities than the back and is playing a full stroke easier than the final nine holes, so Woods is exactly right in saying he needs to get off to a good start. And by good start he's talking about making three (or more) birdies, the way he did on Thursday when he had three of them in the first six holes. -- Brian Wacker
| Tiger Woods: Comebacks after 54 holes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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