It was one of those days for Tiger Woods. — Getty ImagesNo matter what Tiger Woods does on Sunday afternoon at the Memorial -- he fired a 1-over 73 on Saturday and sits four shots behind leader Spencer Levin -- he can take away a lot of positives from this week.

After watching Woods struggle for a month with his swing, through three rounds at Muirfield Village, he's put together one of the best ball-striking weeks we've seen from him in some time.

We're talking five-shot victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational good. Woods is hitting fairways and greens (he's currently leading the Memorial field in GIR) with regularity, and with the exception of the occasional loose swing seems to have tightened things since missing the cut at the Players Championship. There's no question this is the kind of tee-to-green performance he was looking for ahead of the U.S. Open.

Now if he could just get his short game to cooperate as well. In the on-going search to find his swing again, Woods is still missing his touch around the greens. This isn't

Bubba Watson / Getty ImagesOne of the iconic sports moments of the year came when Bubba Watson won the Masters in April and was overwhelmed by the moment, clutching his mom as he dissolved into happy tears.

Two months later, and Watson is still overwhelmed — but not entirely in good ways.

Earlier this week, after hosting a Christian music concert in downtown Columbus, Ohio, before the first round of the Memorial in nearby Dublin, Watson said he and his wife, Angie, were followed home by someone driving closely behind them. They had their adopted baby, Caleb, with them.

"A car chased me," Watson told the press after his second-round 74 at the Memorial on Friday.

If you've ever had the vision of headlights in your rear-view mirror late at night — headlights that don't seem to move no matter where you go — you know the feeling of panic. That panic was surely amplified greatly by Watson's public profile, which has taken off in the last eight weeks. Angie was driving at first, but they pulled over so Bubba could

TIGER'S BACK TIGER'S BACK Y'ALL! HE'S GONNA MAKE ALL YOU HATERS PAY!

Or whatever. Woods had a nice shot to lead off his second round at the Memorial on Friday, and it helped him work his way into second place, just a single stroke off the lead. We have a long way to go, but Woods has a way of coming up big before his idols, and you know he'd love to win at Jack Nicklaus' big event. Play continues throughout the weekend.

Here's something I've never seen: a tee shot pinging off a ball in the fairway. It happened Friday in the Memorial, as Kelly Kraft's tee shot spanged off Kyle Reifer's shot already lying in the fairway. Reifer got the worse end of the deal, seeing his ball shoot back another 15 yards, but both stayed in the fairway.

Sure, it's not a bank-shot ace, but it's still pretty cool. So there you go.

Is this the road to nowhere, Rory? — Getty ImagesFollow Jonathan Wall on Twitter at @jonathanrwall.

OK, now you can press the panic button. One day after Rory McIlroy managed to grind out a 1-under 71 to stay in the hunt at the Memorial, the wheels came completely off on Friday during a 7-over 79 round that saw the 23-year-old miss his third straight cut.

Understand this: Even the best players in the world are entitled to an off week from time to time. But three consecutive off weeks? No doubt about it, Rory McIlroy's game is in a full-blown tailspin ... and it doesn't look like he'll be getting out of it anytime soon.

For the second time in his last three round -- he posted 7-over 79 during the second round of last week's BMW PGA Championship -- McIlroy looked completely lost on the course, chunking wedges, blowing drives into the trees and missing makable putts. He also failed to record a single birdie on Friday for only the second time in his professional career.

McIlroy may be the second-ranked golfer in the world, but he sure as

Tiger Woods / Getty Images

Follow Jonathan Wall on Twitter at @jonathanrwall.

If we've learned anything from watching Tiger Woods over the last couple of years, it's that trying to predict how he's going to play from week-to-week is darn near impossible.

After watching Woods blister the field at Bay Hill to pick up his first official win in more than two years, his game disappeared at the Masters (T-40) ... and went MIA at the Wells Fargo Championship (MC) and the Players Championship (T-40).

No matter how much Woods talked up his game during the stretch, the words seemed hollow as he continued to struggle with his swing. It was the main reason why nobody gave him much of a chance coming into the week -- despite the fact that he's won the tournament four times in his career.

But after taking two weeks off to work on his game, it appears he may have found two critical pieces of his game that were missing from his arsenal over the last two months: distance control and consistency. After hitting 12 greens in

This is from the Byron Nelson, not the Memorial, but you get the idea. (Getty Images)

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We all know the drill: When you're watching a tournament live, the golfers demand absolute silence when they tee off. Like, hold-your-breath-till-they-swing silence.

But since this is 2012, and not 1952, times are changing on the golf course. Specifically, many tournaments now permit cell phones. (They did in 1952, but you had to install your own telephone poles and string your own wire, so most fans didn't bother.) And most cell phones now have cameras. You see where this is going: Even though people silence their cell phones, they somehow forget to silence the "shutter click" of their cameras.

Around Phil Mickelson's pairing on Thursday, the cell-camera-clickers made a noise with every swing like a thousand crickets being stepped on at once.

"It took Phil out of his game," playing partner Bubba Watson told the AP. "Phil's a great player and a great champion and it just took him out of his game. It's sad. It's sad that cell phones can

Phil Mickelson likely wouldn't have been around for the weekend at the Memorial anyway, but after an opening-round 79 (his worst score since an 80 at the 2003 Chrysler Championship), he won't even be around for Friday's second round.

After playing his last seven holes in 7-over, he withdrew from the tournament citing mental fatigue. To say the last month-plus has been a whirlwind for Mickelson would be an understatement. Aside from playing his fourth tournament in five weeks, he took wife Amy to Europe for her 40th birthday on his off week, before heading back to play in a corporate outing on Tuesday in New York, and then flying to Ohio for Wednesday's pro-am.

It's understandable that Mickelson is probably tired from all his jet-setting. But here's the deal: When you blame part of your fatigue and poor play on a week spent in Europe, you're not going to get a lot of sympathy from the rest of the players on tour.

If anything, you're going to get criticized for waving the white flag and