Tiger Prowl: Woods Finishes Strong, Wins Memorial Tournament

Where’s Rory? Rickie who?

So much for the young dudes knocking off the old codgers -- or at least one particular aging superstar, as 36-year-old Tiger Woods schooled a shockingly ragged Rickie Fowler in the final round of the Memorial Tournament. Meanwhile, as the now 73-time PGA Tour winner was adding another chapter to his legend and making everyone’s highlight reel on his way to a two-stroke victory at Jack Nicklaus’ event, “the next Tiger Woods,” Rory McIlroy, was off somewhere licking his wounds after a spectacular two-round flameout back on Friday.

Jack Nicklaus said it was “the most unbelievable, gutsy shot I have ever seen,” CBS Sports analyst Gary McCord tagged it “sick,” and Tiger Woods called his clutch chip-in for birdie at the par-3 16th hole on Sunday at the Memorial Tournament, “sweet.”

It was one of those moments in Tiger Woods history that will have fans remembering where they were when the now 73-time PGA Tour winner hit a flop shot for the ages. After knocking a full 8-iron from the tee 205 yards away into the rough behind the green, Woods took aim with another full swing, but this time it was a wide-open wedge from the deep stuff, looking down at the water.

It was a tribute -- returning of the favor, if you will.

Edit: There’s photographic proof!

Tiger Woods roared from behind on Sunday at the 2012 Memorial Tournament, putting together another classic close to put the screws to his opponents. And he only had to watch Rory Sabbatini, one-time Tiger-poker, fail to make a miracle happen before officially recording a historic win.

Woods’s 5-under 67 on Sunday left him at 9-under for the tournament, forcing Sabbatini, at 7-under entering the 18th hole, to make an improbable eagle to even force a playoff. Sabbatini couldn’t, instead hitting his tee shot into rough just above a bunker and lofting an approach just off the green. In doing so, he clinched victory for Tiger.

For the better part of the last three years, Tiger Woods has seemed like a golfer one shot or one round away from returning to glory. Suddenly, this Sunday, the 2012 Memorial Tournament seems like an almost certain victory for Woods -- and the Tiger of old is eliciting roars again.

Woods rolled in a nine-footer for birdie on the 18th hole and raised his putter skyward in triumph, capping a 5-under 67 that leaves him at 9-under for the tournament. He’s got the lead in the clubhouse.

Well, Tiger Woods made this easy. If you were wondering how he’d respond to a rough Saturday and whether he’d be able to handle chasing down Rory Sabbatini and Spencer Levin on Sunday, this should answer it. The tournament isn’t over, but this shot will be remembered for quite some time.

Edit: It’s over and we can pinpoint this shot as the turning point for Tiger.

Thanks to an incredible chip-in from the rough on No. 16, Tiger Woods now leads the Memorial Tournament. Woods, with one hole left to play, is one up on Rory Sabbatini and Andres Romero, who each sit at 7-under for the tournament.

The swing in momentum came on 16, both for Woods and Sabbatini. Tiger faced an incredibly difficult up-and-down first, before burying a chip out of the deep rough.

In 2007, Rory Sabbatini said Tiger Woods was “as beatable as ever.“ On Sunday at the 2012 Memorial Tournament, Sabbatini may be beaten by a much more beatable Tiger.

Woods played one of the finest shots you’ll ever see on the 16th in the final round at the Memorial on Sunday, flopping a pitch from deep rough onto the green that rolled 25 feet and slipped in for a seismic birdie that tied Sabbatini for the lead at 8-under. Woods is 4-under for the day.

After going on a birdie streak during his first seven holes, Tiger Woods has dropped two shots and is now two back of leader Spencer Levin. Woods made three birdies in a row on holes five through seven, but right after tapping in for birdie on No. 7, he hit an errant tee shot on the par-3 8th. With the hole playing 191 yards on Sunday, Woods blocked his tee shot out to the left and put it in the greenside bunker, which was on the short side of the flag. He was unable to get up-and-down for a sand save, missing a 19-foot putt for his first bogey of the day. Woods also started the back side with a bogey when he put his approach shot on No. 10 in another greenside bunker.

Leader Spencer Levin lived on the edge a bit during his front nine, saving par with a number of clutch putts. But that ran out on No. 10 when Levin made his first bogey of the day to fall to 8-under. He put it in a fairway bunker and then hit the lip on his recovery shot to get out. The Levin bogey has Woods two shots back at 6-under.

The groups ahead of Spencer Levin need to get hot with the putter in order to make a charge at the Memorial leader on Sunday, and Tiger Woods has started making his move on the front nine at Muirfield Village. Woods converted three straight birdies on holes five through seven to move to 8-under, putting him one shot back of Levin. His four birdies in seven holes have the crowd roaring at Muirfield Village. These are chances he had to capitalize on if he wanted to get into contention. The birdie opportunities evaporate quickly on the back side, with the final three holes extremely difficult to add red numbers.

Woods has done some of his best work with the flatstick this week, saving a number of pars throughout his first three rounds with moderate-length putts. On No. 6, Woods confidently raised his putter as he put the 20-footer right on line in the center of the cup. He then hit a perfect second shot from 255 yards on the par-5 7th hole, drawing it across right side of the green and setting up 32-foot eagle putt. It was a difficult putt but he burned the left edge, narrowly missing the eagle and leaving a tap-in birdie.

The leaders are making their way through the front nine during Sunday’s final round at the Memorial and Spencer Levin holds a two-shot lead over Rory Sabbatini. While most of the attention is trained on the group ahead, comprised of Rickie Fowler and Tiger Woods, it’s Sabbatini and Levin who are putting distance between themselves and the rest of the field in what’s shaping up to be a two-man race early on Sunday. After firing a low-round 69 on Saturday, Levin picked right back up again on Sunday with a birdie at No. 1. Sabbatini kept the pace with a birdie at No. 3, a short par-4 where he stuck his approach shot within eight feet of the hole. He converted the opportunity to move to 8-under but quickly gave it back with a bogey on No. 4.

Meanwhile, Woods and Fowler are failing to make much early noise and put a scare in the final group. Tiger birdied the second with a fabulous approach shot to the short side of the green, leaving it below the hole and sinking his putt to move to 5-under. But he’s still four shots back and is running out of holes. After a birdie to start his round, Fowler has completely blown up and tumbled off the leaderboard. He played holes two through four at 4-over par and now sits seven shots back at 2-under.

Get out the popcorn, golf fans. They may not be bringing up the rear in the finale at Muirfield Village Golf Club, but there’s no doubt the penultimate matchup of Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler will be the marquee pairing on Sunday at Jack’s tourney.

Really, what more could Tim Finchem and the suits at Ponte Vedra ask for than the 72-tour winner and embodiment of the PGA Tour’s “establishment” generation trying to match Nicklaus’s victory total by going mano a mano with Mr. Young Gun himself?

This weekend at the 2012 Memorial Tournament looked like it might belong to Tiger Woods entering Saturday’s third round. Instead, it seems more likely that Spencer Levin and Rory Sabbatini will be delivering the drama on Sunday, poised to duel for the lead.

Levin holds the lead, sitting at 8-under for the tournament after a 3-under 69 in his third round. Levin ran his lead to three strokes and his score to 10-under early in his round, but cooled considerably from his piping-hot peak, dropping two shots in his last seven holes.

If Tiger Woods is going to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record of 73 PGA Tour victories this weekend at the 2012 Memorial Tournament, he’s going to need to get things in gear. Spencer Levin already has in Saturday’s third round, and he’s putting distance between himself and the rest of the leaderboard, including Woods.

Levin is 5-under for Saturday’s third round through 11 holes, and has moved to 10-under for the tournament, three shots clear of Rory Sabbatini, who entered Saturday with the lead and is currently 7-under, and five ahead of Woods. Levin’s earned those red numbers by dotting his Saturday scorecard with others, making an eagle and four birdies to just one bogey.

It didn’t take long for Tiger Woods to move into a tie for first place at the Memorial on Saturday. Woods bolted off the driving range with a confident stride and promptly opened his third round with a birdie to put mid-point leader Rory Sabbatini on notice. Woods striped it down the middle and then converted the simple birdie to move to 6-under. He has a history of lighting it up on moving day at Muirfield Village, playing the course 15-under during his last five Saturday rounds here. Woods nearly drained another long birdie putt on No. 4 to move to 7-under, but it lagged just short. He’s playing his best since the win at Bay Hill and his start on Saturday, particularly on the greens, could be a harbinger of another successful weekend.

Sabbatini, on the other hand, has been all over the yard -- starting bogey-birdie-bogey in Columbus. Sabbatini hit what he thought was a good approach shot on No. 1, but the ball went into the bunker. He could not make the sand save, handing sole possession of the lead to Woods for the moment. But Sabbatini rebounded with a birdie on the second to move back into a tie for first. His playing partner, Spencer Levin, also birdied the hole to make it a three-way tie atop the leaderboard.

The third round of the Memorial at Muirfield Village is underway and for the second straight day, the course is yielding little. The finals groups are finishing up on the range and about to begin their moving day rounds, but if the groups on the course are any indication, the one place to move is down. Despite morning rain that softened the greens, Muirfield was a bear on Friday in unseasonably cool conditions. There are only nine players with red numbers so far on Saturday.

Bo Van Pelt is 2-under through his first five holes, climbing into a tie for fifth place and just two shots back of leader Rory Sabbatini. The Oklahoman is constantly in contention, but has yet to break through with a signature win. He’s made noise in several majors but has not converted despite being one of the more consistent Americans on tour. Another uber-talented young American, Ryan Moore, has birdied two of his first six holes to move to 2-under for the Tournament, four shots back. Moore picked up a win in Greensboro three years ago, but a victory in Columbus would be the high-point of his golf career since dominating the Amateur circuit.

The leaders don’t tee off until later in the day, so there have been no key changes near the top of the Memorial Cup leaderboard, as Round 3 action opens at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, Saturday morning.

Nick O’Hern is tied for the lead among players on the course, with 1-under through seven holes cutting his tournament total to 2-over. He is matched by Davis Love III, whose 1-under through five holes of play cut his tournament total to 1-over for the tournament.

Bubba Watson, who bombed out of this week’s Memorial Tournament after two rounds, may have more on his mind than diapers and golf. The 2012 Masters champ weaved a tale for the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson of a mad driver pursuing him and his family around the streets of Dublin, Ohio, on Tuesday night.

According to what Watson told Ferguson, some maniac followed Watson, his wife Angie, and their son from his “Bubba Bash” concert to their rental home during a car chase that involved a pit stop so the golfer could take the wheel from Angie and an SOS call to get his caddie to intervene.

As play resumed at Muirfield Village Golf Club on Saturday, three reigning major champions were on the practice range or back home scratching their heads. Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson were all washouts after soggy second rounds left the U.S. Open and PGA champs at 6-over and the Masters titleholder at 5-over -- all on the wrong side of the 3-over cut line.

With a third consecutive missed cut on his resume and the defense of his U.S. Open title looming, McIlroy, particularly, had to be concerned about his erstwhile game. The golfer some of his colleagues deemed “the next Tiger Woods” during his convincing 2011 Open win, began the week at Jack Nicklaus’ tourney with a quadruple-bogey on Thursday but found a way to post a 1-under 71. Friday, however, he lost any semblance of a clue when he carded a 7-over 79 -- the second time in his previous three rounds that he put up such a hideous number (he scored the same in the second round of last week’s BMW PGA Championship as well).

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Tiger Woods might be playing well for a change at the Memorial Tournament, but a number of big names are going to miss the cut.

Rory McIlroy lost his World No. 1 spot to Luke Donald a few weeks back, and things have gone from bad to worse for him quickly. On Thursday, he started off well by shooting four-under on the front nine, but a quadruple bogey quickly erased that good start. He still managed to finish 1-under on the day, but on Friday, things got bad. He managed to par the 12th hole that derailed his round yesterday, but that’s probably the biggest positive of his day: no birdies, three bogeys, and two double bogeys had him at 7-over for the round, 6-over on the tournament, and three strokes back of the cutline. He’s in a serious funk right now - nothing’s really going right with his game.

Through 36 holes in Dublin, Ohio, Tiger Woods is a stroke back of Rory Sabbatini in second place, tied with three other golfers at 5-under. Sabbatini is still on the course, and is through 16 holes.

Woods was 3-under through his first six holes, getting into a tie for the lead, before falling off after a double-bogey on 12. He bounced back with back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 to get back to 3-under on the day, bringing himself back into a tie for the lead at 5-under before Sabbatini took sole possession of first. Alongside Woods are Spencer Levin, Scott Stallings, and Kyle Reifers, with Daniel Summerhays and Jim Furyk in a tie for sixth at 4-under.

A dreadful time on the par-3 12th has Tiger Woods two off the lead at the Memorial Tournament. The lead is now shared by Spencer Levin and Scott Stallings. Woods is now in a tie for fourth place with a bunch of people.

Woods had parred five-straight after a great start to the day, getting him to 5-under on the tournament, in a three-way tie for first. However, he had nothing going for him on the 12th. Woods badly missed the green to the left, finding himself in some tough rough about three feet from the gallery. His attempt to make it back onto the green came up short, and his second chip left him lying three on the green with a relatively long putt. It was his second double bogey of the tourney - he’s playing pretty well outside of the rare awful hole.

A strong first six holes by Tiger Woods has him in a four-way tie for first after starting out the day at the Memorial Tournament in a tie for 11th.

Woods was at -2 after the first round — not bad, for a golfer who has seen some genuine struggles in most aspects of his game of late. But he’s really turned it on today, with birdies on the first, fourth, and sixth to have him at 3-under on the day and 5-under on the tournament.

Friday’s second round of the 2012 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club is well underway. While some notables, including Tiger Woods, have yet to tee off on Friday, plenty of golfers are making an early move to the front of the pack.

Scott Stallings entered the day atop the leaderboard at 6-under but has lost a stroke through his first five holes and now sits in a three-way tie for second place, along with Eric Compton and the day’s biggest mover so far, Adam Scott. Scott has shot 3-under through his first seven holes to sit at 5-under.