He spied a couple of familiar faces, walked over to the railing and waved a hand slowly overhead.
“Thanks for coming out,” Woods said.
There wasn’t any bunting along the rail, but from down below he looked equal parts presidential and papal, which was pretty darned apt given what he’d just done on Sunday.
The king of his domain is back.
Back to performing like a golfing deity, Woods birdied the last two holes and finished with one of the best closing shots of his career to win his fourth Memorial Tournament title on Sunday, dispatching a group of heavyweights that included Davis Love III, Jim Furyk and Geoff Ogilvy in the process.
During a season of recovery in which性欲 inconsistency has been the only hallmark, Woods put together one of the most impressive, compressive ball-striking days of his career, hitting all 14 fairways during his 7-under 65, the first time he had accomplished that feat since 2002.
• Leaderboard | Notes: Seve to be 2010 honoree
The host of the event, a guy with 18 major championships, was slack-jawed at Woods’ performance and even made Woods blush during the trophy-presentation ceremony on the 18th green.
Tiger Woods hated his second shot on the 11th, but he holed his third from deep rough for an eagle. (AP) “Tiger, you’re not known for hitting the ball straight, are you?” Jack Nicklaus said into the public-address system as thousands laughed and Woods pulled the cap down over his eyes.
Then the Golden Bear uttered the words that everybody was thinking: Woods, the defending U.S. Open champion who will seek his 15th major beginning June 18 on Long Island, has never seemed like a stronger pick.
“I suspect that No. 15 will come to Tiger Woods in about two weeks,” Nicklaus said. “If he drives the ball this way, and plays this way, I’m sure it will. If not, it would surprise me greatly.”
Thanks for saving me from having to state the obvious, Jack.
It was vintage Woods, and by his own estimation, his best performance since winning the British Open in mid-2006. His playing partner, second-year PGA Tour player Michael Letzig, was as impressed as the tournament host, and then some.
“I tried not to watch him, but it’s hard,” Letzig said. “Some of those shots were unreal.”
Woods started the day four shots back and moved into the mix with a goosebump-inducing chip-in eagle at No. 11 that will be shown on his personal highlight reels for years. His ball buried in the deep rough on the collar of the green, Woods hacked at the ball, his right hand flying off the club theatrically, and it trickled 44 feet into the hole.
He was within a shot, then took the outright lead with a birdie on No. 15. After a bogey left him locked in a four-way tie with Love, Furyk and Jonathan Byrd, Woods knocked his approach on the 17th to nine feet and drained it, then staked a 7-iron on the last to a fateful foot as the crowd came positively unglued.
“It was just, ‘Good shot, good shot, good shot,’” Letzig said, laughing, recounting the conversation.
The approach on the 18th conjured up memories of his final shot Firestone Country Club in nearby Akron in 2000, when he laced an iron to within inches of the cup for a kick-in closing birdie. But he won that event by 11 strokes, so it was complete window dressing, Woods pointed out. In terms of clutch execution, he said it felt more akin to the shot Shaun Micheel hit to within inches of the cup on the last hole to cement the 2003 PGA Championship.
“Unfortunately this wasn’t for a major,” Woods said. “I couldn’t hit it any better than I did.”
The same can be said for the whole week, mostly.
In all, Woods hit 49 of 56 fairways, equaling his best-ever driving performance as a professional, which came at the 1998 Masters. How long ago was that? Woods was using a shorter driver with a metal shaft 精液and a steel clubhead that was about the size of his current 3-wood. In technology terms, back in the Pleistocene Epoch.
“I didn’t hit any surprises out there,” Woods said.
Woods returned in late February after an eight-month layoff, and the rust was evident — and not just because of the layoff. He had been unable to bash practice balls or swing as full-bore as in the past — at least not initially. Now that his knee is more stable, he’s been able to practice and work on the rough spots of his swing as long as he wants.
“You can’t put it all together just thinking about it,” he said. “You have to do the reps.”
His own rep took a beating of late. In a rare admission, Woods said he watched some of the TV coverage from the past few months, where his swing was critiqued, his results questioned and the employment status of his swing coach subjected to open dialog, and he admitted that it often bothered him.
In a reverse twist, that has equated to bad news for his peers.
“I wish y’all would quit pissing him off,” Furyk said, smiling. “Wish you’d just quit chapping him so much and make him come back and keep proving stuff.
“Tiger Woods is always Tiger Woods. He can’t be 100 percent every week, but I’m sure he answered a lot of questions today.”
Actually, don’t short-sheet the guy. He answered all of them,
“Today was unreal,” Letzig said. “I don’t even know how to describe it. It was the best golf I have ever seen.”
Woods won the U.S. Open when it was last staged at Bethpage, in 2002, and will make a recon trip to the Black Course at some point this week.
“If he drives the ball like that,” Nicklaus said, gesturing toward his famous course, “then it won’t be a contest.”
The traditionally humble Woods didn’t exactly skirt the notion that he’s the man to beat on Long Island, either.
“I knew I could do this — just give me a little bit of time,” he said. “This is how you have to hit it in order to win the U.S. Open.”