Crowded board sets up a wild Memorial finish
DUBLIN, Ohio — Tiger Woods’ presence on the first page of the Memorial leaderboard entering Sunday’s final round is omnipresent — particularly considering how well he’s hitting the ball.
But there’s a lot more to what will unfold Sunday at Muirfield than Woods, who’s tied for seventh after shooting 68 on Saturday.
Above Woods on the board is leader Bryson DeChambeau, who’s 14-under after a third-round 66. Kyle Stanley shot 70 and is 13-under, along with Patrick Cantlay, who’s 13-under thanks to a 66 that included a hole-inone and another eagle, and Joaquin Niemann, a 19-year-old rookie from Chile who’s playing in only his fifth professional tournament.
Byeong Hun An is 12-under, and Justin Rose, who won the Fort Worth Invitational last week, is 10-under.
Then comes Woods, along with J.B. Holmes, Hideki Matsuyama and Whee Kim, five shots back at 9-under.
Woods, playing almost flawlessly from tee to green, teased the entire tournament when he tied for the lead at 11-under with a birdie on No. 15. But three-putt bogeys on Nos. 16 and 18 dropped Woods out of the lead and left him hot under the collar by the time he finished.
“I wish I could have stayed up there at 11-under,’’ Woods said. “But I’m in position where if I shoot another good round like I had the last two days, I’ve got a chance.”
Woods’ statistics this week are as stunning as they are telling. He’s No. 1 in the field in strokes gained from tee to green and ranked No. 1 in proximity to the hole on his approach shots to the green (22 feet, 11 inches) and No. 2 in strokes gained around the green.
Those numbers are indicative of how well Woods’ iron game and short game have been.
And then there’s his putting. Woods is ranked 80th out of the 81 players remaining in the field in strokes gained putting at 5.666, which means he’s giving up more than five strokes to the field on the green.
All of that prompted Hank Haney, Woods’ former swing coach, to send this message out from his Twitter account Saturday: “If Tiger wins the Memorial w the 3 penalty shots, 2 three putts and the other 3’ missed putt he’s had so far then look out for the rest of the year because he will tear it up once he tightens things down a little more.’’
Patrick Reed, who was paired with Woods on Saturday, said Woods “is close.”
“The scary thing is, as well as he’s hitting the ball, he’s not putting well,” Reed said. “And Tiger knows how to putt, so when he starts putting well, it’s going to be really fun to watch all those low scores coming from him.”
Woods spent an hour on the practice putting green after an even worse putting round Friday and was at it again Saturday for nearly an hour.
Woods, after hitting 12 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens Saturday, was exasperated after his round, saying, “I am definitely not taking advantage of how well I’m hitting it.
“I could have easily shot 62 or 63 [on Friday] and could have easily shot 63 or 64 without doing much today,” he said. “I hit the ball well enough [where] shooting in the low 60s would have been pretty easy if I had just had putted normally.”
With inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, the final round tee times were moved to between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. off two tees.
Cantlay had perhaps the most colorful round of the day with his holein-one on No. 8 and eagle on the par-5 15th hole. He entered the year having never made a hole-in-one as a pro and now has two already this season with one at Pebble Beach.
“It was a little 7-iron, tracked it basically the whole way and fortunate to have it go in,” he said.
Cantlay, whose caddie, Matt Minister, went to nearby Ohio State, is hoping to ride some local mojo to the winner’s circle Sunday.
“It’s great to be in contention,” Cantlay said. “That’s what I play for. That’s what I practice for. That’s the most fun I can have out on the golf course is being in contention.”
DeChambeau lamented a couple of short putts he missed Saturday, but still feels bullish about his game.
“I hit it pretty well for having what I’d would call B to B-plus game,’’ DeChambeau said. “[I’ve been] putting it beautifully this week. Even though I missed [some] little 3-footers, I still think I’m rolling it really well and have a great chance for tomorrow. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.”