Streb Putts Into Playoff With A Wedge, Then Putter Gets Shut Out

Alex Myers has a nice wrap-up on Robert Streb's amazing Greenbrier Classic run using his 56-degree Vokey to hole huge back nine putts, only to get into the three-man playoff with a replacement putter where he never got the chance to use the backup blade.

The wrap up from The Loop and video of one of Streb's wedge-putts, this one at the 13th hole:

Danny Lee bested David Hearn in the playoff, earning both spots in The Open Championship. James Hahn and Greg Owen also earned spots.

66: Tiger's Back! He Wasn't "Far Away" After All (Or So He Says)

His feels did not feel far off, or so Tiger claimed after a shocking 66 in the Greenbrier Classic opener that had the former World No. 1 sounding pretty confident in the state of his game.

Karen Crouse in the New York Times reports.

Woods returned this week with a head of steam too weak to move a ball off the tee, and opened with a 66 on Thursday. Go figure. It was his best first-round score in 22 months, and, at four-under, it equaled his lowest score relative to par this year.

“I know people think I’m crazy for saying that, but I just felt like I wasn’t that far away,” said Woods, who dismissed the notion that he had proved anything to anybody with the good start.

All that mattered to him was that he was four strokes behind the pacesetter, Scott Langley.

“Forget you guys and everybody else out there,” Woods said, laughing. “It’s about winning golf tournaments and putting myself up there consistently.”

He's back! Until he's not.

Steve DiMeglio's report implies that Tiger actually cleared his head instead of trying to get more technical.

“ … I didn’t touch a club for a while (after the U.S. Open). Took my kids down to Albany, and we were down diving in the water every day all day pretty much. It was nice to have a summer break with them like that, especially after the way I played.”

Memorial Roundup: Lingmerth Leads, The Duf Is Back!

Almost record scoring at the Memorial (36-hole mark missed by one) is in large part to benign conditions and immaculate course conditioning, as I note in our video roundup.

Doug Ferguson’s game story touches on leader David Lingmerth and others.

I wrote about Jason Dufner’s amazing four-eagle start through 36 that included an ace (not caught by cameras) on the 16th hole Friday. Duf also broke his media silence, sort of.

Bob Harig on Tiger’s 15th straight made cut at the Memorial and his 9 fairways hit through 36 holes (28 chances, last in the field reports G.C. Digital). Dave Shedloski points out that this is what it has come to for Woods: clutching up to make cuts.

And Hideki Matsuyama is making a spirited title defense, as Jason Sobel notes.

Our 36-hole wrap up in 97 seconds.

40th Memorial Tournament This And That

The Memorial normally arrives as a strong barometer for the U.S. Open two weeks away. With its classic parkland setting, thick rough, fast greens and overall demanding offerings, Muirfield Village offers a chance to see who is playing well.

With a faux links looming in two weeks at Chambers Bay, The Memorial won't foretell what is to come, and that's a good thing. For a change The Memorial is about a classic, traditional event with a strong field.

Doug Ferguson previews the event where Hideki Matsuyama defends against a field including the red-hot youngsters (Fowler, Spieth) and the old guys hoping to quiet some of the youth obsession (Woods, Mickelson, Furyk, etc...).

Steve DiMeglio reports on Tiger, who is due to show signs of improvement with his latest game overhaul, has implemented a few things in his swing.

The early Woods-Reed-Day pairing will be the focus of PGATour.com/DirecTV's Live@ coverage starting at 8 am ET.

My preview touching on the many intriguing storylines from the Nationwide Live Studio:

Nicklaus: "I think I underachieved all my life"

Jack Nicklaus held court today at The Memorial, launching the 40th edition of the tournament he founded by honoring Nick Faldo and journalism lifetime achievement honorree Doc Giffin. Before that ceremony, however, the Golden Bear took questions from the media.

Doug Ferguson kicks off his AP notes column with Nicklaus' view that he was a constant underachiever and how that shaped his approach to the game.

"I think that if you feel you're overachieving, or getting more out of what you should get, then you stop working," Nicklaus said. "I always feel like I'm never getting what I should be getting out of what I'm doing. So you've got to work harder to make sure you do that. I always wanted to climb a mountain. I always wanted to get better. ... So I just tried not to believe anything about what I would read or what I would hear or what I even thought.

"I still don't think I achieved what I could have achieved in my career."