Tiger Woods posts a career-worst 44 on his first nine at Memorial

There are bad days at the office, there are terrible days, and then there are days like Tiger Woods had on Saturday: all-time worsts.

In his career, Woods had never shot a 44 over nine holes, and yet that’s exactly what he did on his first nine on Saturday at the Memorial. It dropped him all the way into last place, a particularly galling spot at a tournament he was widely expected to win just by showing up.

[Photos: Tiger Woods’ third-round 79]

How exactly does someone like Tiger Woods shoot a 44? By failing to sink a single birdie but carding a bogey, two double-bogeys and one triple-bogey. He was better in the second nine, totaling a one-under 35 for a total score of … gah … 79.

It’s not like this abomination of a score is coming out of nowhere for Woods. He shot 71 and 74 the first two days of this tournament, flirting with the cut line and generally looking like the lost has-been of 2010 and 2011 rather than the confident No. 1 he’s been the last few months.

This is exactly what Woods did not need at this point in the year. He missed out on a chance to win Augusta, the one major this season being played at a course with which he’s familiar. In less than two weeks, he tees it up in the U.S. Open at Merion, a course which he’d never even seen before this week. And while a win at Sawgrass in The Players Championship, a course historically hostile to Woods, gave his fans hope that a turnaround was afoot, this week shows that he still has work to do at any course, even his most familiar tracks.

Oh, and if you’re looking for bad omens, here’s one: Woods’ worst round as a pro was an 81, during the third round of the British Open in 2002. That year’s British was held at Muirfield … which just happens to be the site of this year’s, as well.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

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