Tiger's back and the U.S. Open field is in trouble

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-06-08

I opened my radio show Saturday with the following:

“If Tiger Woods continues hitting fairways as he did the first two days of the Memorial, the Open is closed.”

Well, he did and it’s hard for me to fathom anyone else being the prohibitive favorite at Bethpage Black the week after next.

Woods put on a virtuoso performance in Dublin, Ohio Sunday. He not only was perfect hitting fairways – 14 of 14 – but his ball-striking might have been even better. He hit probably less than a handful of marginal shots and, even when he did, Woods fixed it by doing what he did on No. 11.

He missed the par 5 green long and right and was faced with a downhill chip from a nasty spot of rough. Miss the chip long and the ball could easily run into the creek on the other side of the green. What does he do?

He went down and got the ball, let go of the club on the follow-through with his right hand so he cut pull the club hard through the rough with his left and put more spin on the shot. The strategy worked perfectly as the ball trundled to the hole, fell in and suddenly he was a shot out of the lead.

That’s how you shoot 65 and win your 67th career tournament. And, in the process, silence the critics who have wondered for weeks what is wrong with the world’s No. 1 player.

"I knew it was coming around," Woods said. "I just wasn't as consistent as I needed to be."

He was consistent at the end of Sunday’s round. His approach on 17 came to rest less than 10 feet from the cup and he lasered his approach on 18 to within 14 inches and finished 3-3, a real fete at Muirfield Village.

The day started out with PGA Tour rookie Matt Bettencourt and Tour journeyman Mark Wilson at the top of the leaderboard, but that didn’t last long. Bettencourt hung in for seven holes, but a three-putt bogey on the eighth followed by a chunked wedge into the water for a double bogey took him out of it. He finished with a 75 and tied for fifth.

Wilson could do no better than a 73 and finished in a tie for third.

Jonathan Byrd, Davis Love III and Jim Furyk all made runs at Woods but Byrd and Love III misfired badly a couple times coming down the stretch and Furyk missed a birdie putt on 15 that was the difference in him getting to a playoff with Woods and maybe getting a win.

Furyk's second-place finish this week gives him six top-10 finishes in 2009. He also extended his under-par streak to 10 consecutive rounds.

He closed with a 20-foot birdie on the 18th to shoot 69 on Sunday.

“I just didn't beat one guy," Furyk said. "It [stinks] finishing second. But he played better. A 7-under on those greens and with the conditions we dealt with, that's pretty spectacular. I just wish you all would just quit (ticking) him off ... so he has to come back and keep proving stuff. I think he answered a lot of questions today."

For Woods, the win was his 20th comeback in the fourth round and this one was by four shots.

“I kept saying I was close and I knew I was but the difference was, I wasn’t able to practice after rounds,” he said. “Now I can do that and I’m starting to see results.”

Results like 49 of 56 fairways hit for the week. His fourth Memorial Tournament victory goes along nicely with his six Bay Hill wins, filling his trophy case with hardware from guys named Arnie and Jack.

So how does the guy who won the 2008 U.S. Open feel about going back to Bethpage Black for this year’s Open?

“It was nice to play this well going into the U.S. Open,” Woods said. “This is how -- this is how, you know, you have to hit it in order to win U.S. Opens.

Especially Bethpage. That golf course is as big as they come. You know, with the rough as deep, even with it graduated, it's super thick. From the guys I've talked to who have already played it, they said it's already -- you really can't get to some of these greens if you hit the ball, even in the first cut.

It's just one of those things where you have to hit the ball well all week. I did that in 2002. That was one of the reasons why I was up there.”

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About Mike...
As a sports writer for over 35 years, Mike Dudurich has seen a lot of great things, covered spectacular events, but his passion is, and has been golf. He recently ended a 29-year career at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and will now be a frequent contributor on GolfGearReview.com. Mike hosts a weekly golf radio show on 1250 ESPN in Pittsburgh from the beginning of April through the end of August. The show airs Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and can be heard online at http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/show?showId=insidepghgolf - Listen to Mike Here!.

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