Golf

Tiger Woods Is Closing In on Sam Snead’s Record


On Thursday, he opened with a two-under-par 70, the same first-round score he carded in 2012, the last time he won this event. He was five strokes behind the first-round leader, Ryan Moore. This is Woods’s second start since winning the Masters in April, to move to within three victories of Jack Nicklaus’s record 18 major titles. Woods came to the Memorial feeling “a lot better,” he said, than he did two weeks ago at the P.G.A. Championship at Bethpage Black, where he failed to advance to the weekend.

“I don’t think he’s going to let that happen again,” said Nicklaus, who added that he expected Woods to play well this week and at the United States Open in two weeks at Pebble Beach, the site of a 15-stroke Open victory for Woods in 2000.

Nicklaus, 79, accepts that his majors record is back on the endangered list. For the past several years, as Woods went through four back operations that left him questioning his future in golf, Nicklaus cautioned people not to count Woods out.

On Tuesday, Nicklaus, the host of the Memorial, said, “If he’s physically sound and it’s his desire to win and he breaks it, you know, well done.”

As for the other record, the one Woods could match this weekend, Nicklaus cares a lot less.

“Oh, Snead’s record, I don’t pay any attention to that,” Nicklaus said with a laugh. The majors were his measuring stick, Nicklaus added. He finished with 73 tour victories, and he said Snead’s record was never that important to him.

“Might be to him,” Nicklaus said, referring to Woods. “I don’t know.”

Does 18 majors beat 82 tour wins? Woods kept his poker face intact.

“To be able to come this close to get one behind Sam Snead has been pretty amazing,” Woods said, adding, “Hopefully, I have a few more.”



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