Extra practice pays off for Tiger

He has won 20 of the last 40 tournaments he’s played in worldwide.

DUBLIN (AP) — No one is surprised when Tiger Woods wins a golf tournament.

One reason he left Muirfield Village so satisfied with his second victory of the year is that Woods wasn’t surprised, either.

What most people will remember about his 7-under 65 in the final round of the Memorial, which allowed him to make up a four-shot deficit, is the flawless finish. In a four-way tie for the lead as he stood on the 17th tee, Woods closed with two birdies, from 9 feet to take the lead, and a 7-iron from 183 yards to a foot that will become part of Memorial lore.

Woods, however, has a longer memory.

“It wasn’t just the last two holes,” he said. “It was all week.”

He only missed five fairways at Muirfield Village, matching his most accurate tournament off the tee in his 13 years on tour (he also hit 49 fairways at the 1998 Masters).

Woods twice hit powerful drives down the middle of the fairway on the par-5 15th on the weekend, both times leading to birdie. On the par-5 fifth Saturday, with enough breeze in his face that 3-wood wasn’t quite enough, he choked up 2 inches on a driver and hit a baby cut, setting up another easy birdie. In the worst of the wind, he controlled the flight of his irons.

“I didn’t really have a problem hitting it either way,” Woods said. That’s when you feel like you’re in control of what you’re doing.”

Just because he won the Memorial in his final tournament before the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black is no reason for the other 155 players to stay home in two weeks.

Remember, the hype was cranked up after Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in his final tune-up before the Masters. A month later, some made it sound as though he was in a slump.

But there was something different about Memorial.

“If you look at how I won at Bay Hill, I only had 101 putts,” he said. “Anyone who has 100 putts should win a tournament. I didn’t do it the way I did it this week.”

What he had been missing was the ability to hit balls after his rounds, which Woods had not done for a year before surgery as ligaments in his left knee eroded. That changed last month, when he went to the range for two days at Quail Hollow, more often at The Players Championship, then a lot more at home.

“My practice sessions started getting longer at home,” he said. “Hit more balls, play more golf, all these things. People don’t realize you need to do that. You need to have that ability. You can’t just think about your swing and how to be great the next day. I needed to do the reps and do some good practice sessions this past couple of weeks. It came together this week.”

Ask any athlete about the public’s expectations, and most will say their expectations are even higher.

Woods might be an exception.

“My expectations ... I had to lower them a little bit because I knew I couldn’t practice when I wanted to and I couldn’t do all the things I used to be able to do,” he said. “It was just a matter of time before my practice sessions started getting long enough, and I started building my confidence through that. And here we are.”

That should make him a big favorite at Bethpage Black. If you don’t think so, just ask Jack Nicklaus.

At the trophy presentation Sunday, Nicklaus said he suspected that Woods’ 15 career major would come in a couple of weeks.

“If he drives the ball this way, and plays this way, I’m sure it will,” Nicklaus said. “And if not, it will surprise me greatly.”