Tiger Woods: Abysmal putting plagues disappointing Memorial finish

Tiger Woods held a share of the lead early on Saturday at the Memorial tournament, but terrible putting throughout his week brought only disappointment in the end.

Tiger Woods was ready to win this week at the Memorial Tournament. You could see it in his eyes, the way he carried himself around the course. Maybe you heard it in his post-round presser on Saturday. Gone was the “just happy to be here” version we saw earlier this year. He knew he had this tournament within his reach, and he was letting it slip away.

"“I am definitely not taking advantage of how well I’m hitting it,” Woods said. “This is probably the highest score I could have shot. Could have easily shot 62 or 63 yesterday and could have easily shot 63 or 64 without doing much today.“I hit the ball well enough to where shooting in the 60s could have been pretty easy if I had just putted normally.”"

Actually, compared to how Tiger usually would have responded, that was borderline giddy. And that summary of his third round was really the story of his week.

What might have been?

If we know anything about Tiger Woods over the past 20-some years, that will eat away at him, at least until his next start. The only positive is that there’s a clear mission.

Tiger must fix his putting, and fast, if he’s going to win again.

Woods led the field at Muirfield Village in strokes gained tee-to-green. Hitting 14 of 56 fairways (tied for 32nd) and 54 of 72 greens (tied for sixth), this could have easily been a runaway victory. He gained more than 14 strokes on the field right up until he put the putter in his hand. Then he gave all of them away. Just take a look at this stat, courtesy of Golf Channel researcher (and general golf encyclopedia) Justin Ray.

That would tear me up, and I’m barely a bogey golfer. While Tiger Woods may still be happy to be playing golf, he’d be a whole lot happier winning golf tournaments.

There was a time when we – and Tiger – thought he’d be lucky to just walk without pain again much less play at this kind of level on the PGA TOUR. While that’s clearly in the past now, there’s still a lot of work for him to do. He’ll have two weeks to get it back before he chases major No. 15 (again) at Shinnecock Hills.

Next: Bryson DeChambeau carries lead into Memorial finale

When Tiger Woods went back to the Scotty Cameron putter that he used to win 13 of his 14 majors, it was supposed to be a move to regain confidence on the greens. I’m not going to blame the tool here, but I do look forward to seeing what he can do after two weeks of practice.

If he can get that part of his game in line without giving up his absolutely incredible ball-striking…well, let’s just say that No. 15 won’t seem as far-fetched as it did just one year ago.