Tiger Woods reportedly made a holiday weekend scouting trip to Shinnecock Hills in advance of the upcoming U.S. Open.
This week he resumes his comeback at The Memorial Tournament, hosted by Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield Village.
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So when Nicklaus, an 18-time major winner, spoke to the media Tuesday, the topic of Woods winning a tournament for the first time since 2013 came up. Suffice it to say, Jack knows a thing or 73 about winning on the PGA Tour.
"He has got to get through the barrier of not having done it for a while," Nicklaus said. "When you haven't won that always happens, and that's human nature.
"But when you got a guy that's as good as he is and as competitive as he is, he'll break through that barrier. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see Tiger win this week, not at all. I think he's playing well, I think he loves the golf course; he's always played well here, and his remembrance of what he's done here will come back into his head. That will help him play better."
Woods, 42, has won the Memorial five times, most recently in 2012, and has never missed the cut in 15 tries.
Yet, in his most recent appearance in 2015, when he was in the throes of back problems, Woods shot his highest score as a pro: an 85 in the third round. He teed off alone in the final round and finished dead last.
Three back surgeries later — the most recent a fusion that appears to have solved the problem but kept him from swinging a club for more than six months — Woods is looking more like the Tiger of old.
The Memorial is his ninth start of 2018. He has four top-12 finishes, including a tie for 11th in his last start at The Players Championship.
"I would hate to have been through what he's been through, because he's been through a lot," Nicklaus said. "But I think that he's a tough competitor, he's a hard worker and he's still driven. That's why I never counted him out."
