Tiger Woods Needs Strong Back 9 to Win Memorial Tournament 2012

Tiger Woods isn't the strong finisher that he used to be, but he's going to need to channel his reputation from years' past if he wants to storm back and catch the leader, Rory Sabbatini, at the 2012 Memorial Tournament.

Woods is currently six-under par for the tournament, two shots back of the current leader, Rory Sabbatini. Tiger started the day off right with four birdies in the first seven holes, but bogeyed two of the next three holes to drop into third place.

He can't be doing that if he wants to win this tournament. He can't be two-putting makeable putts, he can't force himself to play out of bunkers and he has to maintain his accuracy with the driver and continue to hit the greens in regulation.

It's been quite a while since we've watched Tiger do something on the golf course that leaves us in awe, but he's going to need one of those performances on the back nine at Muirfield Village. Tiger hasn't had success since his lone victory of the season at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, where he played decently on the back nine, but nothing close to what he needs to do to win today.

Tiger finished 40th in the last tournament he played at The Players Championship, but his back nine was encouraging. On the final nine holes of the tournament, Woods shot a three-under thanks to birdies on two of the last three holes. He should be able to use the confidence gained in the second half of the last round he played to put together a solid back nine in the Memorial.

Woods is familiar with winning at Muirfield Village, which will only serve to aid his comeback journey. He has participated in the tournament 12 times and has four wins on the course, most notably three consecutive triumphs from 1999-2001.

The three back nines Tiger has played so far in this tournament have gotten progressively worse as the weekend went on. On Thursday, he birdied 15 and 17 before undermining his efforts with a double-bogey on 18. Friday's round was more of the same, as he birdied 15 and 16 after double-bogeying the 12th. Yesterday was a complete disaster for Woods on the back nine, when he bogeyed four of the nine holes to finish the day at one over par.

The putting performance he has put on in this tournament has been mediocre at best. He's averaging 1.8 putts for every green he hits in regulation, which isn't terrible, but he needs to be a notch or two below that to make up the ground in between him and the leader.

It's been a long time since Tiger Woods put on a show for us like he used to, and if he wants to put on one of those shows, he'll need a much stronger back nine than we have seen from him this weekend.