Having already won this year at the courses famously connected to Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones, two of the faces that would be etched on the Mount Rushmore of golf, Scottie Scheffler added winning at Jack’s Place, shooting a final-round 2-over-par 74 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio on Sunday. That was enough to hang on for a one-stroke victory at the Memorial. The only other player to win the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, the Masters in April and the Memorial in June in the same season? None other than Tiger Woods, another of the faces on the Mount Rushmore of golf, who won the first of five Memorials 25 years ago.
Ahead of the PGA Championship last month, Woods was asked to describe the tremendous run by Scheffler to become the dominant world No. 1 this season. “If he putts awful, then he finishes in the top 10. If he putts decent, he wins. He putts great, he runs away. He’s just that good a ball-striker and that good an all-around player.”
After entering the final round with a four-stroke edge, Scheffler was nursing a one-streak lead before he canned a 16-foot par putt at 16 to stretch his lead to two and despite a rocky finish, he held off Collin Morikawa, who closed in 71 and chased him to the finish. It marks the fifth win of the season by Scheffler, the player on the PGA Tour first to win five times in a season since Justin Thomas seven years ago.
Scheffler opened with rounds of 67-68 to claim the 36-hole lead and managed to extend it by a stroke despite a triple-bogey on Saturday and three-putt bogey at 18. He signed for 71. Conditions remained tough on a sun-drenched but gusty final round that felt a little too much like the U.S. Open had come one week early.
“Muirfield Village is growling at the players today,” said CBS’s Trevor Immelman.
Scheffler made two bogeys on the front nine and just one birdie – at No. 6 – as Adam Hadwin made an early move before stumbling late and finishing alone in third (74) and earning the one spot available into the British Open to the top finisher not already qualified.
Morikawa (71) remained hot on Scheffler’s heels, especially after he drilled a 32-foot birdie putt at the par-3 12th, his longest putt he had made since the first round of the PGA Championship, a span of 202 holes, to get within one.
Scheffler failed to answer at 12 from closer range, made a nervy short-range birdie stab at 13 and burned yet another edge and watched in disbelief as his ball spun out on 15. Although he punched his fist when he saved par at 16, Scheffler missed an 8-foot par putt to cut his lead in half. He ranked 43rd in Strokes Gained: putting in the final round and 23rd for the week in the 73-man field, lending credibility to Tiger’s assessment of his game. In the end, Scheffler got the traditional winner’s handshake from the legendary Nicklaus that he had said before the tournament that he so desired.
“It would mean a lot to me to be able to shake his hand and win this golf tournament with all the history here and what Mr. Nicklaus has meant to the game.”
