Tiger feels confident ahead of The Memorial
Tiger Woods returns to competition Thursday in the 40th Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. The tournament marks the first in a busy summer for Woods, who has also committed to the upcoming U.S. Open, The Greenbrier Classic, The Open Championship and the Quicken Loans National.
The Memorial is Tiger’s fifth official start of the 2015 season. He last played in THE PLAYERS Championship on May 10, where he tied for 69th. His best finish of the season was a tie for 17th at the Masters Tournament.
“I’m a lot more confident than I was at THE PLAYERS,” Woods said about his swing Wednesday after playing in the Memorial Pro-Am. “I feel good about the changes. It’s still evolving, but getting better.”
One of 10 former champions in the field this week, Woods last won at Muirfield in 2012 and will be making his 15th appearance. Prior to arriving in Ohio, he spent Monday and Tuesday practicing at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, site of the U.S. Open, June 18-21.
As for his first impressions about Chambers Bay, which will be hosting the major for the first time, Tiger said he spent about 3 1/2 hours on each nine Monday trying to get a feel for the links-style course.
“We did a lot of homework,” he said.
Woods, a five-time winner of the event, has always felt comfortable at the Memorial, hosted by Jack Nicklaus. He missed last year’s tournament due to injury but has won two of his last four starts on the course. Tiger’s scoring average of 69.95 and career earnings of $5,047,344 rank first at the Memorial.
Nicklaus has lengthened the par-4 18th hole by 40 yards, and it now measures 484. He has also changed the fairway bunkers on the right side, renovating nine cluster bunkers into three.
Not that the hole was a pushover. In last year’s tournament, it played to a stroke average of 4.338.
Tiger will be looking for improvement off the tee. He hit only 50 percent of the fairways at THE PLAYERS Championship; 53.57 percent at the Masters; and 46.43 percent at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Woods will play the first two rounds with Muirfield member Jason Day and Patrick Reed. They are scheduled to start Thursday from the 10th tee at 8:15 a.m. ET and Friday off the first tee at 1:05 p.m. ET. The purse is $6.2 million, and the winner receives $1,116,600.
Weather is expected to be in the low 80s most of the week.
