Tiger Woods levels Jack Nicklaus' 73-win record on the PGA Tour
Tiger Woods, who started his professional golf career 16 years ago, has finally reached a mark that Jack Nicklaus once set for the second most, 73 in total, PGA Tour victories in the history of the game.
Woods participated in the Memorial Tournament, hosted by Nicklaus himself, at the Muirfield Village Golf Club where Woods was nowhere a favourite this time.
However, he proved that he still is the master of the Memorial and came out as a winner for the fifth time in the history of the event.
It was the second PGA Tour victory of his 2012 campaign and was well deserved, especially after a great birdie putt on the 16th hole on the final day.
Nicklaus also lauded the stroke as the most daring shot he had ever seen in his life, and it was no doubt one of the best in golf’s history.
Woods was one stroke behind Rory Sabbatini while standing on the 16th tee and made the shot that found the rough near the green.
He then used a lob-wedge, which allowed him to hit the ball onto the green and it went right in the hole in the end.
“It was either fish or cut bait,” Nicklaus, who designed the course in Dublin, Ohio, explained.
“If he comes up short, he’s going to leave himself a very difficult shot. If he hits it long, he’s probably going to lose the tournament. But he lands it exactly where he has to. What a shot. I don’t think, under the circumstances, that I have ever seen
one better”.
Woods expressed his pleasure over being accompanied with Nicklaus himself when he levelled his record.
He said that he could not have been that happy if he had achieved the benchmark in any other event.
“It’s special for me to do it with Jack here,” he admitted. “If I had won somewhere else, it would just have felt as if, ‘Oh, I tied Jack’. But it means something to have him right here next to me, because he’s the greatest champion who ever lived”.
He is now considered one of the hot favourites for a win in the upcoming US Open, the second major event of the year.
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