Tiger Woods made history Saturday at the Memorial Tournament — shocking history.
Woods shot the worst round of golf ever in his brilliant professional career, a mistake-laden 85 that was punctuated with a quadruple-bogey eight at the closing hole.
The day got off to a rough start. Teeing off at 8:28 a.m., things unraveled quickly for Woods, who has dominated Muirfield Village over the years. He bogeyed three of his first five holes and shot 42 on the front. More bogeys came on the back nine — 11, 12, 14 and 17 before he suffered the ultimate embarrassment with the eight at 18.
The course was not playing difficult. It yielded some nice early morning rounds. Kevin Streelman, Keegan Bradley and Dustin Johnson all shot 65, beating Woods by an unthinkable 20 shots.
Woods’ playing partner, rookie Zac Blair, beat him by 15 shots with a 70. Ironically, Blair got an autograph from Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship. He was a mere 10-year-old and Woods won that major.
Woods left the course without comment on his biggest career on-course disaster.
“It’s startling to see his game could fall that far back,” observed Sir Nick Faldo, the 2015 Memorial honoree and CBS golf commentator. “He (Woods) cannot find impact. He’s losing it both ways. This is far deeper than what went on today. Tiger never used to have any fears. He’s never found anything like this where he simply cannot play the game of golf.”
The 85 left Woods buried at the bottom of the field and he’ll play by himself in the final round, if he plays. Woods gave no indication that he suffered any physical problems on Saturday.
Concluded Faldo, perhaps verbalizing what many are thinking: “I’m fascinated with where he goes from here.”
