Woods gives Memorial thumbs up

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Tiger Woods will make his next bid to get back on the winning track at the Memorial Tournament.

Embattled Tiger Woods will make his next bid to get back on the winning track at the Memorial Tournament at Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village Golf Club in Ohio at the end of the month.

Woods, battling to reclaim the dominance he held in golf before injuries and a scandal sent his game into a downward spiral, won for the first time in two year’s at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill in March, but in three tournaments since then he has been unable to do any better than 40th in the Masters and The Players with a missed cut thrown in at the Wells Fargo Championship.

Woods, still a big draw card, though, will be joined by fellow American 2012 Ryder Cup contender Matt Kuchar, the winner on Sunday of The Players, as well as last year’s FedeEx Cup winner Bill Haas and the Australian young gun Jason Day who chased home 2011 Masters winner Charl Schwartzel.

Woods confirmed his participation in The Memorial, an event he won in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2009, on his official website on Monday.

Dustin Johnson, who had knee surgery late last year and has been a notable absentee from tournament golf in recent months with a back injury, will also be teeing it up at Muirfield Village, it seems.

His management company issued a statement to that effect this week.

“Obviously, I can’t wait to get back out and compete,” Johnson was quoted as saying in a statement.

“I came into this year with some big goals, including making our Ryder Cup team, so I’ve got some serious ground to make up this summer,” said Johnson who has fallen to 21st in the standings for the US Ryder Cup team to face Europe in September at Medinah in the USA.

With Woods and Kuchar signed up, Memorial officials now have commitments from seven of the top 10 golfers on the World Ranking list.

The others are reigning US Open champion and World No 1 Rory McIlroy, the new Masters champion and World No 4, Bubba Watson, the PGA Tour’s only two-time winner so far this season, Hunter Mahan, Phil Mickelson and Memorial’s defending champion Steve Stricker.

Current World No 2 Luke Donald has indicated on his Twitter account that he will also be playing at Muirfield Village, but officials say he has not yet made his participation official.

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