Tiger Woods Wins Memorial: PGA Tour Players Should Be Shaking in Their Boots

Tiger Woods' come-from-behind victory at this year's Memorial Championship was reminiscent of days past, when Sundays belonged to the undisputed king of the PGA Tour. The way he crushed his competition on the back nine in such a high-profile event shows that it won't be long until Woods reclaims his throne.

His win at the Memorial—the 73rd of his career—tied Jack Nicklaus's career mark for PGA wins. The fact that he achieved the feat at Nicklaus' tournament isn't lost on anyone. Woods certainly has a sense of history and drama.

The thing that should have other players worried isn't so much that Woods won the tournament; rather, it's how he did it that's troubling.

Woods was in prime position on Saturday to take control of the tournament, but after a hot start he faded on the back nine and ended up shooting a one-over for the day. That put him four shots off the lead heading into Sunday. 

While I'm sure many people assumed that Woods was simply going to continue struggling on Sunday, I saw something in his game throughout the week that made me believe he would turn things around, and I thought he'd start his final round on fire, which he did.

I wrote about it after his round, and said he'd have a good chance to win with a round of three- or four-under. Woods did one better than that with an epic finish on Sunday. 

He birdied three out of the last four holes, including his insane pitch-in on the brutally tough 16th hole, which Nicklaus called the “most unbelievable, gutsy shot” he'd ever seen, according to Golf.com. Woods put the cherry on top when he finished the round with a birdie at No. 18—a veritable punch in the gut to Rory Sabbatini, who still had half a chance to catch him before that final putt by Woods.

Woods' confidence is finally returning, which should make things interesting in less than two weeks when the PGA tour descends upon San Francisco, California, and the Olympic Club for the 2012 U.S. Open.

His confidence stems from the fact that the swing change he has been working on since 2009 is finally becoming second nature. Woods has clearly been uncomfortable on the tee this year...until this past week.

Despite the fact that Woods did have his fair share of ups and downs this past weekend, he looked comfortable with his swing. He was nailing his distances with his approach shot more often than not, and he ended the tournament tied for first place in the greens-in-regulation stat.

What may be more disconcerting to the rest of the players on tour was the fact that Woods also hit the fairways off the tee with regularity, finishing the tournament tied for 14th in driving accuracy.

A comfortable Woods means bad things for the rest of the tour. His game is rounding into form, and as we all know, when Woods is on his game, there isn't a player on earth who can challenge him.

I'm not ready to crown him just yet, but I will say this: It won't be long before Woods goes on another legendary run. He's incredibly close to putting it all together, and once that happens he'll go on a tear.

Woods is back, folks, and it's only a matter of time before the classic "Tiger roars" are the norm, once again.

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