While no player has been more successful in the history of The Memorial Tournament than Tiger Woods, one of his rounds at Muirfield Village has a place in the record books for all of the wrong reasons.
Tiger Woods won The Memorial Tournament on five occasions, while he finished in the top 10 in half of his trips to Jack Nicklaus‘ event. No other player has won the event on more than two occasions.
His most recent win came in 2012. Three years later however, Woods was out there by himself in the opening tee time of the final day. He would finish the event at 14 over par.
Three of his four rounds would see Woods fail to break par. But the large majority of the damage was done in the third round on Saturday, with the 15-time major champion posting an 85. It was the worst round of his professional career.
What Zac Blair said about playing alongside Tiger Woods at the 2015 Memorial Tournament
Woods made just one birdie on the day. Meanwhile, he found the water on four occasions and made a quadruple bogey on the final hole. He finished the week eight shots adrift of anyone else who made the cut.
Zac Blair was playing alongside Woods in what was his rookie season on the PGA Tour. So he would have been forgiven for being underwhelmed by what he saw playing alongside arguably the greatest talent to have ever played the game.
However, speaking to ESPN three years later, Blair insisted that he was still amazed by so much of what Woods did that day.
“From the first hole on, I couldn’t have been more blown away,” Blair said. “My favourite athlete of all time, and to get paired with him was really cool. Everything exceeded my expectations. He was my idol and I tried to not expect much, but he was really nice, talked to me all day, talked to me about fishing in Utah. The Chambers Bay U.S. Open was coming up and we talked about that because I had played in the U.S. Amateur there.”
“I remember some of the shots he hit and thinking how unbelievable this guy is and why he is on another level as far as talent from anybody else,” he added. “To hit some of the shots he hit, I had played a year out here and played with a lot of good players but some of the things he could do with a golf ball made me realise why he was the best. He was still able to do some good things. He hit some iron shots that I couldn’t believe how flush they were.”
How Tiger Woods reacted to playing on his own in the final round of The Memorial
It seems that the fans did not allow Saturday’s poor round to put them off supporting Woods over the final 18 holes of the tournament.
Speaking after posting a 74 on Sunday, Woods was asked about the experience of playing by himself as well as the support from the galleries.
“The crowds were fantastic. The crowds were awesome. To come out this early and to have that many people support you like that, it was very special,” he said.
“Have I ever been in that position? No, I haven’t. The only thing that was close to something like that was when we had that storm‑‑ what was that storm called at Congressional? Me and Brendon out there playing, my foundation crew and that was it.”
Thankfully, the 49-year-old has been able to register three better finishes at The Memorial in the years since, including in 2019 when he finished tied for ninth after shooting 67 on Sunday.
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