Tiger Woods’ pursuit of history has been golf’s most dominant storyline across the past two-plus decades. Sure, his chase of Jack Nicklaus and his 18 majors is most notable, but one of golf’s most important records—the most PGA Tour victories of all time—has never been closer to Tiger’s grasp, as he closes in on Win No. 82 on Monday morning at Japan’s Narashino Country Club.
It was 8,422 days ago when Tiger earned his first tour win at the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, and Tiger’s many accomplishments already reside in golf’s history books. He now has a chance to tie Sam Snead’s mark of 82 PGA Tour victories, as he owns a three-shot lead with seven holes to go as play resumes in the final round of the Zozo Championship on Monday morning in Japan (Sunday evening in the United States).
Hideki Matsuyama, playing in his home country in Japan’s first-ever official PGA Tour event, birdied the 11th and 12th holes, to trim Tiger’s lead to three shots before play was suspended after a marathon Saturday. Record-setting rainfall on Friday canceled play, forcing this Monday finish. Read below for minute-by-minute updates as Tiger resumes his final round, looking for that 82nd win.
6:36 p.m.: Tiger’s first tee shot in the Monday restart, a driver off the 12th hole, takes an opportune kick out of the rough and back into the fairway. That’s huge for Tiger (-18), as he kicks off this cool morning on the 490-yard par 4.
Here’s a reset of the scores:
Tiger Woods: 18-under (through 11)
Hideki Matsuyama: 15-under (through 12)
Rory McIlroy: 12-under (through 17)
Sungjae Im: 12-under (through 14)
Gary Woodland: 12-under (through 11)
6:25 p.m. (eastern): It was a long Sunday of golf for Tiger Woods (and the entire field), but the 15-time major champion is looking somewhat fresh as he warms up before resuming on the 12th hole on Monday morning. Tiger played 29 holes before shutting it down ahead of this Monday restart, so you might expect the 43-year-old to be somewhat tight. But it looks like that surgery he had to end the year has been working wonders, as Tiger looks as fresh as he did earlier in the week.
Tiger has talked about how tough the tee shot at is at the par-4 12th hole, and that will be a crucial shot to this potential record setting victory.