Tiger Woods Birdies Last Two Holes to Win Memorial Tournament

By Dex McLuskey

(Bloomberg) -- Tiger Woods birdied the final two holes of the Memorial Tournament to secure his 67th title on the U.S. PGA Tour and his fourth win at the tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus.

Woods, who’s No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking, shot a 7-under-par 65 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, for a four-round total of 12-under 276, one less than Jim Furyk.

Woods will go into the U.S. Open, where he’ll be chasing a 15th major win, after his second victory in seven starts this year. The tournament, which he won last year before undergoing season-ending knee surgery, begins June 18 at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course in Farmingdale, New York. Woods won the last time the Open visited there, in 2002.

“This is how you have to hit it to win the U.S. Open,” Woods, who collected $1.08 million, told reporters after overcoming a four-shot deficit in the final round. “You have to hit the ball well all weekend.”

It’s the 20th time the 33-year-old Woods has won on the world’s richest golf circuit after trailing through three rounds. The last time he managed the feat was in his other win this season, at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on March 29, when he trailed Sean O’Hair by five shots going into the last day and won by one.

Woods found all 14 fairways today, after landing on the last four yesterday. It’s his best streak by that measure since 2003.

“The driving this week was nice,” he told CBS. “It was coming, it was just a matter of time and I finally put it together.”

Early Birdies

Woods, who began the day four shots behind third-round leaders Matt Bettencourt and Mark Wilson, pulled within one shot of the duo with three birdies in the first five holes.

After making another birdie at the par-5 seventh to go into a five-way tie for the lead at 9-under, Woods bogeyed the eighth to leave rookie Bettencourt, Wilson, Jonathan Byrd and Geoff Ogilvy in the lead.

Moments later, Byrd took a two-shot lead when his 82-yard (75 meter) wedge at the seventh landed eight feet beyond the flag and spun briskly back into the cup for eagle.

Woods closed the gap with a flop shot into the cup from ankle-length greenside rough at the 11th for his second eagle at the hole in as many days.

“You couldn’t ask for a worse lie,” he said. “It was just gnarly.”

A birdie at the par-3 11th gave 31-year-old Byrd a two-shot lead, while Furyk holed from four feet for birdie at the 12th to move into a tie with Woods for second place at 10-under.

Quadruple Bogey

As Ogilvy’s chances of winning disappeared with a quadruple bogey at the 14th hole, Woods tied Byrd for the lead with a tap- in birdie at the par-5 15th after Byrd bogeyed the 13th.

Woods found himself in an outright one-shot lead over Davis Love III and Furyk when Byrd dropped back to 9-under with a double bogey at No. 14. Love climbed the leaderboard with back- to-back birdies at the 13th and 14th holes before closing with a bogey at the 17th and triple bogey at the last.

Woods failed to make par from a greenside bunker at the 16th to drop back into a tie for the lead with Love at 10-under and Furyk joined them with birdies at the 11th and 12th. Byrd also moved to 10-under with a birdie at the par-5 15th.

From 173 yards at No. 17, Woods dropped a 9-iron approach shot nine feet from the pin and pointed his forefinger at the cup as his birdie putt dropped in to give him a one-shot lead.

At the last, he made sure of victory when he left his 186- yard approach a foot from the cup to set up the seventh birdie of his round.

The PGA Tour continues June 11 with the St. Jude Classic at the TPC Southwind in Memphis.