Woods feels the pain before late rally avoids cut
>Masters champion shoots 76 to make Memorial weekend >Mcilroy faces threat from Rahm for world No 1 position
Tiger Woods fought back from looking almost certain to miss the cut at the Memorial to produce two birdies in the last three holes to survive until the weekend.
Yet as much as this great escape reminded the game of the 44-yearold’s enduring competitive spirit, for Woods, himself, this was further evidence of Father Time’s cruelty.
“Ageing is not fun,” Woods said after his 76. “Early on in my career, I thought it was fantastic because I was getting better and better and better. And now I’m just trying to hold on.”
In fairness, this was Woods’s first competitive event in five months and only his third of 2020. Rust was inevitable. Except it was worrying that, after birdieing his third hole (the 12th) when hitting his tee shot to within two feet on the 170-yard par three, he proceeded to drop six shots in the next eight holes.
Woods’s back was sore and his body language gave it away. “I wasn’t quite moving as well as I’d like and couldn’t quite turn back and couldn’t quite clear – it was a bit of a struggle,” Woods, the fivetime Memorial champion, said. “It started this morning during the warm-up. It wasn’t quite as good as I’d like. [But] I finished birdiebirdie-par
and that’s about the only positive to it today.”
Alongside Woods at Muirfield Village, Rory Mcilroy shot a levelpar 72 for two under, five better than his playing partner.
The Northern Irishman faces a fight for the world No1 position this weekend, with Jon Rahm looming menacingly on the leaderboard on a mission to become just the second Spaniard in history to top the rankings.
Jose Maria Olazabal never managed it and neither did Sergio Garcia, despite both winning the Masters. The late Severiano Ballesteros stands alone and as the great conquistador happens to be Rahm’s inspiration, prepare for some rich Iberian emotion should the 25-yearold climb to the summit in Ohio.
Rahm knows that if he lifts his first title this year then Mcilroy, 31, will need at least to be in a two-way tie for second to ensure his latest five-month reign continues. Rahm would even make the ascent should he finish outright second, so long as Mcilroy comes outside the top 30 and Justin Thomas does not win.
On eight under following a 67, these are enticing scenarios for the Basque.
Only Americans Tony Finau (69) and Ryan Palmer (68) are ahead on nine under.
After a mediocre restart following the PGA Tour restart – in four events his best finish has been a tie for 27th – Rahm believes he has finally relocated the spark that made his progress appear so inexorable before coronavirus forced the three-month hiatus and that did not seem likely after a third round 75 on the same Muirfield Village layout in last week’s Workday Charity.
But then came a 64 in the final round and the confidence began to re-emerge. “I wasn’t supposed to play last week, but with the [Covid-19] situation in Arizona I felt it was better to be here for two weeks,” Rahm said.
“On Sunday my swing wasn’t feeling the best, but after bogeying my first hole that day I told Adam [Hayes, his caddie], ‘hey, let’s just go for it’
“I figured something out on the range on Tuesday; a bit of a feel on the swing that’s been making me more comfortable.
“This was apparently the best tee-to-green round I’ve had in terms of strokes gained, and I’m surprised at that. But hey, I don’t know. I feel good.”
England’s Danny Willett is on four under courtesy of a brilliant 66. But Shane Lowry, the Irishman who should have been defending his Open Championship trophy this week, missed the cut on four over with a 75.