Out of the Woods

Stat: Fairways Hit; Percentage: 87.5%; It was no doubt that accuracy was the determining factor at the 2009 Memorial Tournament held at Jack’s place, also known as the picturesque Muirfield Village Golf Club. Held less then a mile from this bloggers place of employment [yes, contrary to popular belief I do have a real job] in Dublin, Ohio, Muirfield is the Golden Bear’s crowning jewel of all of his turf creations. And once again, like so many times before at Jack’s home, Tiger seized what was his – another championship – his 4th to date.

A rainy Wednesday afternoon seemed like a perfect prelude and unmistakable foreshadowing to what was going to happen. The proud host put together a legendary skins game on the famed grounds. With a few skins still up for grabs on the 18th, Woods drained an 8 footer to halve the hole and force a chip-off for the remaining skins. After Jack stuck one within 3 feet Tiger, who always has a flair for the dramatic, sunk the chip to clinch the competition. That was only the beginning.

Tiger is Tiger – I don’t have to go into detail on his background. If you don’t know who Tiger is then you just suck at life. But anyway, if you were the most detail oriented anal-retentive dude in the world, you might point out that the weakness in Tiger’s game is accuracy off the tee, and obviously I am splitting hairs. But at Memorial ’09 Mr. Woods was as impressive off the tee as he was in ’06 in the unseasonably sweltering heat at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake. And on top of that, he actually hit a driver in Dublin – and kept it ‘out of the woods!’

Woods put on a driving clinic at Muirfield splitting the fairway 49 of 56 times, and continued to hit it with typical Tiger length. But because of atrociously bad putting he entered the final round 4 shots back of PGA Tour novices Mark Wilson and Matt Bettencourt. As Tiger lit the course on fire with birdies on Sunday the two leaders faded as quick as the roars of the Tiger crowd thru the tall oaks. As players tried to contend with the World’s #1, he smacked them all away with two of the most clutch approach shots of the year. After staking it to within 5-feet on the 71st hole he outdid himself by sticking a 7-iron from 186 yards within a foot of the cup on the 72nd green to seal the deal and carding a memorizing 65.

Every time I see Tiger shake the Golden Bear’s hand, to me, it seems like a passing of the torch from the great to the greatest. Although Tiger will not be able to pass Jack’s record 18 majors at the 2010 Masters, he can move ever closer to immortality. He will be seeking his 5th Green Jacket next Spring to pass legendary Arnold Palmer and move within one jacket of Nicklaus. Every time Tiger wanders up Magnolia Lane and approaches the beauty of Augusta National he is always the favorite. And as I look back on his first major win, the “win for the ages” at Augusta, I couldn’t draw up a better scene then the record breaker 19th happening at the hallowed grounds. Congrats to Tiger on your 67th Tour victory (I know he reads this).