Tiger Woods' Memorial Tournament Deficit Insurmountable Due to Weather
Unfortunately for Tiger Woods, he got the worst of blustery conditions during Friday's second round of the 2013 Memorial Tournament, and he currently trails leader Bill Haas by 10 strokes.
The five-time winner and defending champion of the Dublin, Ohio event hosted by Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield Village Golf Club had the wrong side of the draw. As a result, it cost Woods any hope of rallying for another win at this prestigious stop on the PGA Tour.
That's only one element that embodies the blind luck often associated with golf, but it nevertheless dooms Woods' bid to recover and threaten for the trophy.
Soft, more receptive greens will define the typically arduous venue when Woods tees it up again. While that will help him string together more birdies and make putting surfaces less treacherous in terms of speed, that is the exact same scenario for the entire field.
Even if the world No. 1 fires at every flag and has reasonable success with the putter that has suddenly betrayed him this week, there are too many of his fellow competitors far clear of his one over-par mark.
Woods' Nike teammate, second-ranked Rory McIlroy, was being written off after an opening-round 78 in which he looked like a complete shell of himself.
However, between the two weather delays, continually favorable scoring conditions, a tightened-up swing and a marked improvement on the greens, McIlroy became more aggressive. He's reached minus-four through 14 holes in his second round, highlighted by this birdie at the par-four 13th:
PGATour.com's Amanda Balionis testified to the golden opportunity those still on the course at the end of Friday had:
McIlroy now sits just one behind Woods, and his playing competitor, 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, birdied five of his last nine holes to get to six-under, including at No. 14:
Per Weather.com, Dublin's forecast dictated a 50 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms Friday evening and projects at least a 30 percent possibility that they will carry over throughout today's play.
That will leave the course more susceptible to lower numbers. Woods has already won four times on the PGA Tour in 2013, but those victories have been all from out in front, and his game is completely backwards.
Gone at the moment is his magnificent touch on the greens and prowess with his irons, despite his driving accuracy being uncharacteristically solid (85.71 percent of fairways in regulation).
The low point of Woods' round was a three-putt double bogey at the par-five 15th. In starting on the back nine, that was the juncture at which Woods was in danger of missing the cut:
On a course with which Woods has so much familiarity and success, the trickier the conditions, the more it would level the playing field.
That's simply not the case, because just about any golfer on Tour with reasonable distance can capitalize on the luxury of approaches stopping nearly stone dead on the fly.
Even if Woods does correct the brief flaws well enough to post a low number on moving day, with the way Muirfield is playing, it won't be enough to mount a legitimate charge to ultimately emerge victorious.
Note: All statistics and information, unless otherwise indicated, are courtesy of PGATour.com.
