He
was running low on gloves Sunday at the Memorial Tournament.
“No kidding, huh? I kept
hitting everybody out there today,” Woods said with a wide grin. “Thank
God I get them for free.”
On his first swing on the first hole, Woods pulled
his drive left and drilled 37-year-old Jeramy May in the neck. “I’m just
glad they were on the other side,” May said, pointing toward his
daughter and a friend.
On
the second hole, Woods hit 19-year-old Alan Flood in the back of his
left leg as he was standing far left of the fairway. Then at the 15th
hole, Jimmy Craig of suburban Columbus was in the right rough when
Woods’ drive hit him in the thumb and then the side.
Woods apologized and
shook his hand.
“It’s
worth a glove,” Craig said, and Woods obliged.
It was that kind of day
for the defending champion, who shot an even-par 72 to finish at 6
under, a dozen shots behind winner Justin Rose. Woods tied for 19th, his
worst finish since 2002 at the Memorial, where he has won four times.
Yet he wasn’t
disappointed. He expected some problems in his first competitive rounds
after sitting out three weeks due to a neck injury. Also, he was playing
his first tournament in years without a swing coach. He split with Hank
Haney after The Players Championship, where Woods was unable to
complete the fourth round because of the injury.
Asked what he discovered
at Muirfield Village, Woods laughed.
“Well, I’m capable of playing four rounds in a row,”
he said. “Thank you.”
He
started and finished with 72s, with a pair of 69s in the middle. His
driving was erratic throughout, and he seemed to spend every available
second analyzing his swing, by himself, pulling back an imaginary club
and stopping and starting through impact.
“I felt like this week I hit some really good shots,
shots that I have been lacking,” Woods said. “It’s just one of those
things where I still need some work at home.”
Mammoth galleries
followed him wherever he went, squishing away en masse in the mud left
by a weekend of storms at the Memorial.
Woods birdied three holes on the front side of the
final round but also had two bogeys — one after hitting Flood at No. 2.
He parred out the back side except for a bogey at the par-3 16th.
Because he had so much
troubling controlling his drives, he played poorly on the longest holes.
He was 6 under on the par 5s — a year ago he was 11 under on those same
holes.