Tiger's Memorial Sunday 66 Is His 67th Win

The Memorial Tournament, as its name implies, is to preserve the memory of golfing greats from bygone eras. This year's honorees were Joanne Carner, a winner of 43 LPGA events, and two-time Major winner Jackie Burke Jr.

Tiger Woods is already etched in our memory.

Last year's US Open playoff victory will go down in history as the one Tiger won on one leg and his most gutsy win ever.

This year's victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and at Jack Nicklaus' Memorial Tournament will be a lasting legacy of Tiger's respect for the game of golf and for Mr. Palmer and Mr. Nicklaus.

The torch has been passed to Woods for a long time now. The 33-year-old phenomenon surpassed Palmer's 62 lifetime victories with last year's WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.

Then he went right past Ben Hogan and his 64 career wins with the U.S. Open championship at Torrey Pines.

Now, with 67 and counting, Tiger has only Mr. Nicklaus' 73 and Sam Sneed's 82 victories to exceed as he continues to exceed the expectations of golfing fans worldwide.

Of course, there are the four remaining Major victories to tie Mr. Nicklaus' benchmark of 18. In two weeks, it is likely he will repeat his success as U.S. Open Champion, duplicating his 2002 win at Bethpage Black on Long Island.

Is it possible, with five straight Major victories, that Mr. Woods could set all the records straight as soon as the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links a year from now?

Woods' convincing win at Muirfield Village Golf Club sealed with a birdie-birdie finish would indicate it is not only possible, but probable that in a couple of years he could be crowned the greatest golfer to ever play the game.

The week started with Tiger and Jack paired in a Wednesday skins game for the first time since the first two rounds of the 2000 PGA Championship at Vahalla GC.

Woods, privileged to play with the golfing hero he idolized as a child, knew how special a treat it was.

"Anytime you can play with Jack—obviously, we all know he doesn't play much anymore."

Woods, always humble, understated the improvement in his game in the ensuing nine years.

"I'm a far better player than I was in 2000, no doubt. Certainly have a lot more shots than I did then. Understand how to play the game of golf infinitely better than I did then. People fail to realize the field's gotten better. Everyone's gotten better. It's not just me making improvements, it's everyone."

Woods remembers the last hole they played together, the 18th at Vahalla like it was yesterday.

"With Jack and I walking off the tee, I said, "Jack, let's finish up the right way." He said, "Definitely." That means making birdie, and we both made birdie."

Woods chipped in late Wednesday afternoon on the 18th green at Muirfield Village to seal the skins game.

Classy.

The real tournament began on Thursday with Luke Donald firing an eight-under 64, taking only a new tournament record 20 putts.

The 31-year old two-time winner on the PGA TOUR would not shoot another round in the 60s and finish the tournament at two-under in T14 place.

Three-time Memorial Champion Tiger Woods opened with a 69.

No golfer would go lower than 67 in the second round (Matt Kuchar and Chris DiMarco).

One-time PGA TOUR winner Jonathon Byrd (69-68) and 2002 Memorial champion Jim Furyk (67-70) would rise to the top of the leader board tied for the lead at seven-under after 36 holes.

Tiger would shoot 74, his worse round of the tournament and was six strokes off the lead.

Notables to miss the cut, which came at four-over par 148, included struggling Billy Mayfair who has now missed 12 of 16 cuts this year, Vijay Singh who was recapturing his form recently with two Top 10s at THE PLAYERS, and Colonial in his last three events also missed the cut.

Jesper Parnevik and Bo Van Pelt opened with 81s and followed with a 69 and 70, respectfully and respectably. Both missed the cut as did three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington and defending champion of the last two British Opens.

The reigning 19-year-old U.S. Amateur Champion Danny Lee, who turned professional after the Masters, and Aussies Aaron Baddeley and Adam Scott also went packing after Friday's round.

Sean O'Hair withdrew after the first round due to a sore left forearm.

Two timer winner already this year Geoff Ogilvy moved the most on moving day on Saturday. He shot a bogey-free nine-birdie 63 and surged from T57 to T5 position.

On Sunday in the hunt, he would falter with a quadruple bogey eight on the 14th hole, shoot 75, and finish T10.

The third round leaders were Matt Bettencourt (71-68-68) and Mark Wilson (68-70-69) at seven-under par. Bettencourt is a true PGA TOUR rookie having never played in a PGA TOUR event until this year after finishing No. 1 on the Nationwide Tour last season.

Wilson has won twice on the PGA TOUR, including the opposite WGC Mayakoba event earlier this year in Mexico.

Jonathon Byrd and Jim Furyk both shot 71 on Saturday and were tied for second place one stroke behind. Ogilvy and Davis Love III (72-68-69) were one stroke farther back at five-under par for three rounds.

Tiger Woods came back with a 68 and was tied for seventh with Michael Letzig, Matt Kuchar, and 2004 Memorial Champion Ernie Els.

Going into Sunday, he was four strokes back with six golfers in front of him.

With nearly perfect weather and no rain, this year's Memorial was sure to be memorable regardless of the Sunday finish and eventual champion.

Hitting every one of fourteen fairways off the tee, Tiger Woods eagled the par-five 11th hole for the second day in a row to ignite his round, shooting a back nine 32 en route to a final round seven-under par 65.

Yesterday, he hit five-wood and made the eagle putt.

Today, he chipped in from back right behind the green.

For a moment there were four players tied for the lead until Woods two-putted the par-five 15th hole for birdie. He then bunkered his tee shot on the par-three 16th hole and failed to get up and down to save par.

After a nine-iron and birdie putt on No. 17, Woods hit a towering 186-yard seven-iron at No. 18 to within 14 inches of the hole. The tap-in birdie gave him a two-stroke lead at the time and was enough to seal his fourth title at Jack's Memorial Tournament.

Furyk would birdie No. 18 to finish solo second, one stroke behind Woods.

Byrd shot 72 to finish T3 with Wilson who shot 73.

Bettencourt faltered with a 75 finishing T5 with Kuchar (71) and Love (73).

Woods plays next at the U.S. Open in one week at Bethpage Black.

He is thinking positively.

"It was nice to play this well going into the U.S. Open. This is how—this is how, you know, you have to hit it in order to win U.S. Opens."

Nicklaus, though always supportive of Tiger's quest to beat his record of 18 Majors, isn't conceding that it will be done anytime soon or anytime at all for that matter.

"People have just asked me, will Tiger break the record? I think the pace he has and the quality of player he is that, even if he doesn't play well, I think he'll probably still break my record."

Though the Golden Bear continued: "But he still has to do that. I mean, it's not a gimme. You just don't win—what's he won, 14? He's got to win another five Majors to do that. You start out anybody's career at age 33 and say you're going to win five Majors, the chance of most people is probably going to be no. But in Tiger's case, probably yes. We don't know."

But we will find out likely sooner than later.

Andy Reistetter is a freelance golf writer.

He follows the PGA TOUR volunteering for the tournaments and working part-time for NBC Sports, CBS Sports, and The Golf Channel. He resides in Jacksonville Beach, Florida near the PGA TOUR headquarters and home of The PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach.

He enjoys pursuing his passion for the game of golf and everything associated with it. He can be reached through his website www.MrHickoryGolf.net or by e-mailing him to [e-mail]