| Tiger's Memorial win rekindles magic | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 5 2013, 02:07 AM (18 Views) | |
| breenda | Aug 5 2013, 02:07 AM Post #1 |
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The focus has never been on this number. Tiger Woods always hoped to eclipse it along the way to immortality, adding it to a list of surreal accomplishments, more résumé fodder to ponder. The poster on his bedroom wall as a kid concerned major championship hardware, specifically the outrageous standard set by Jack Nicklaus. But getting to Nicklaus' mark of 73 PGA Tour victories is nice, too. And to do 712 AP2 Forged Irons at Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament, with the Golden Bear himself sitting behind the 18th green watching Woods fire a shot at the flag and drain the clinching birdie putt, is about as good as it gets. "He had to rub it in my face right here, didn't he?'' Nicklaus joked Sunday. That's Tiger. You have to appreciate his flair for the dramatic, even if it has been lacking to a large degree over the past few years. But there he was at Muirfield Village, charging up the leaderboard with four front-nine birdies, falling behind with a couple of bogeys, seemingly out of it with a few holes to play. Woods was all but dead when his approach went over the 16th green. Then he somehow got that chip shot to drop in for a birdie that shook the central Ohio ground. Nicklaus called it one of the best shots he's ever seen under the circumstances, and who are we to argue? Who could get that ball close, let alone hole it? But Woods did, setting up his second victory of the year and tying Callaway Big Bertha Diablo Iron Set at 73 wins on the PGA Tour, nine behind all-time leader Sam Snead. "It was phenomenal,'' said caddie Joe LaCava. "And the roar was unbelievable.'' The par-3 16th was playing 201 yards over water to a back left pin made more difficult by a left-to-right wind that Nicklaus suggested was too difficult for such a position. Just four players birdied it, but Woods was the only one among the top 10 to do so. His 8-iron approach -- an 8-iron from 200 yards, mind you -- was aimed just a bit to the right and went over the green. From there, Woods was faced with a 50-foot flop shot that he admitted he hoped to get within 8 feet of the hole to have a putt at par. "It was just so downhill and running away from me,'' Woods said. "It just fell in. I didn't think Ping K15 Driver was going to get there at one point. Kind of like 16 at Augusta, I thought I was going to leave it short somehow, and then it fell in.'' Woods referenced the birdie chip he made during the 2005 Masters, where he aimed away from the flag, bumped the ball into a slope and saw it roll back ever so slowly into the cup. "This was one of the hardest ones I've pulled off,'' he said. |
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2:27 PM Jul 11