Tiger Woods shoots worst round of his career at Memorial

Following his encouraging performance at the Masters, some golf fans were optimistic Tiger Woods was slowly rediscovering the magic that had made him the sport’s biggest star.

Unfortunately for Woods, his performance Saturday during the third round of the Memorial was arguably the worst of his career.

Woods shot a career-high 85, ending the round with a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 18th green, to fall to the bottom of the leaderboard at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. He finished the front nine with consecutive double bogeys and, even at that early stage, needed to finish at par in order to avoid the worst professional round of his career. He completed the round at 13 over.

The single-round performance was Woods’ worst since he shot an 82 in the second round of the Phoenix Open in January. That performance prompted Woods to take a two-month break from golf, which ended at the Masters.

After signing his card Saturday, Woods declined interview requests, but did sign a few autographs for fans before leaving. He didn’t appear to be injured during the round.

Pretty much everything went wrong for Woods. He had six bogeys to go along with the two double-bogeys and his first quadruple bogey. He also hit four balls into water hazards. By the time the carnage was over, Woods was eight strokes behind the next-lowest player on the leaderboard.

Zac Blair, a PGA rookie who was playing alongside Woods, beat the 14-time major winner by 15 strokes, finishing with a two-under 70. Blair was excited about the chance to play with Woods after getting his autograph as a 10-year-old during the 2000 PGA Championship.

“It was obviously still great to play with him,” Blair said, according to the Associated Press. “He’s one of the best players to ever play. It was nice to meet him. I enjoyed playing well. It would have been nice to see him play a little bit better, but he’s working through some things. He’ll get back playing good.”

Prior to this week, Muirfield had been kind to Woods during his career -- he has won the Memorial five times. However, it has been nearly two years since Woods’ last PGA win at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013.

With the U.S. Open two weeks away, Woods’ attempt to reestablish himself as among the world’s elite golfers seems to be in disarray.

ALSO

It has been a tough week for Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn break up, citing their ‘hectic lives’

Tiger Woods says breaking up with Lindsey Vonn adds to ‘brutal’ week