Why Tiger Woods Will Not Win the Memorial Tournament

Out of all the wonderful things Dublin, Ohio offers, the hands down best event of the year is the Memorial Tournament. Businesses and restaurants boom all across town. Media outlets flock to Dublin to catch a glimpse of some of the world's best. Thousands of people who can't break 100 analyze the dozens of swings they see desperately hoping to improve their games. And best of all, a bunch of wealthy Dubliners smashed on $9 beers and $16 glasses of wine get threatened, tackled, and maybe even arrested by cops (A scene I saw at last year's tournament that will be very hard to beat this year). While it's not quite a major, the Memorial always draws one of the best fields of any PGA tournament and offers one of the most difficult challenges on tour. This week many of the world's top golfers are at Muirfield Village competing for not only a win, but also some huge momentum heading into the US Open in two weeks. Tiger Woods is a heavy favorite to win his sixth Memorial and his game seems to be finally nearing peak performance. However, Tiger will not win this week. I repeat, HE WILL NOT WIN. This prediction makes absolutely no sense if you look at the two facts I mentioned a couple of sentences ago (And to be one hundred percent honest, I'm not exactly confident in this prediction), but I just don't see career win number 106 coming Tiger's way this week.

Tiger Woods may have four wins already this year, but a win he hasn't had in nearly five years is why he will not win this week. I'm talking about a major victory, and Tiger's last came in 2008 at the US Open. The man who thinks "winning takes care of everything"  (I don't have nearly enough time to prove why this is an absolute ridiculous concept to relate to Tiger...) needs to win a major before he will finally acknowledge he's anywhere close back to his best, and it's obvious all of his attention is being placed on Merion in two weeks. This past week, Woods traveled to Philadelphia to play the course that will host the US Open for the first time, so he could get an experience for the course. With that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if Tiger takes a complete different approach at Muirfield Village this week. He will be hitting shots he will have to face at Merion. He will be thinking about how this shot or that shot will work at Merion. He will be thinking about who he wants to call up for some fun at Merion. All of his focus is already at Merion, and while a completely unfocused Woods is still probably good enough for a top 10 finish, it will not be good enough for a win with this field. 

The field at the Memorial is full of players ranked at the top in the World Golf Rankings, and their own games will be another reason Woods will not get the job done this week. Two players that stand out to me this week are Jason Day and Rickie Fowler. Day, who recently bought at home in nearby Westerville and has a membership at Muirfield Village, will have a familiarity with the course that will be unmatched by a majority of the players in the field. He has been one of the most consistent placers in majors the last eighteen months, and whenever he shows up to play, it seems like he ends up in contention come Sunday. Fowler, on the other hand, hasn't been nearly as successful as Day, but he was atop the Memorial leaderboard last year. Unfortunately, he fell to the pressure and collapsed during the weekend. The PGA's flashiest dresser claims he learned from the experience, and I think I actually trust him. Fowler is a tour favorite and the Memorial seems to be the perfect time for him to break out of a slump. 

Since picking a winner of a golf tournament is nearly impossible unless you pick Woods, I'm going to expand my short list to five. In addition to the two above, I'll take Dustin Johnson, Lee Westwood, or Luke Donald to win this week. Each of the three have been in contention in countless tournaments, but they don't have nearly as many wins as they should. Johnson has always been pegged as an American who has the potential to win many golf tournaments, but has never delivered. Westwood and Donald were both former world number ones, but they did that with consistent top tens and very little hardware collection. All of them are great golfers, but it seems like it's now or never for these three if they want to leave a legendary legacy.

Come Sunday, it won't surprise me if Tiger Woods is in contention to win another Memorial. In fact, I absolutely expect him to be right there. But no matter where he is on the leaderboard, the game's greatest finisher will not get the job done this week. Unless of course, he pulls off a shot like this one: 

Tiger Woods-Masters 2005

Or this one...

Tiger Woods- the Memorial 2012

Or this one............

Tiger Woods- US Open 2008

You know what, this Tiger guy may win after all.

J. Nave 

Fun Fact of the Week: During the last post, The Athletic Acumen surpassed the 1000 page visit mark. And for those of you who may think I just obsessively check my blog to make the number higher, I've disabled my page views from counting. That means, we are averaging just over 110 readers a post. That is way more than I ever expected when I started this on a cold, February night. A huge THANK YOU goes out to all the loyal readers, the one read standers, and the "I accidentally clicked on the link what am I doingers". It truly feels incredible to have a passion of mine being appreciated by so many people, and as long as you all keep reading, I'll keep typing!