It did not come easy, and it also came down to the 72nd hole.
But in the end, Scottie Scheffler got the job done once again.
He won the Memorial Tournament by a stroke over Collin Morikawa despite shooting a 2-over 74 on a difficult day at Muirfield Village. Only 11 players finished under-par for the week, as Sunday’s final round had a scoring average of 74.93.
From the fairway on 18, Scheffler airmailed his 8-iron over the green, a putting surface hard to find because of the firm conditions. Morikawa did the same from the fairway bunker, turning things into a chipping contest on the final hole.
Morikawa went first, as his third shot almost went in for a remarkable birdie. Scheffler then left his chip about five feet short and outside Morikawa’s mark. That set the stage for the World No. 1 to hole the winning putt, and he did just that.
Scheffler’s triumph at Jack’s Place marks his fifth win of the 2024 season. His first victory came at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The following week, he won The Players. Then, in April, Scheffler won at Augusta National and at Hilton Head for the RBC Heritage.
And now, Scheffler won the Memorial, which marks his first career win after the month of April.
But his win at Muirfield Village also carries historical significance. Only one man has won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Masters, and the Memorial, all in the same year, which happened in 2001. That, of course, was Tiger Woods, whose 7-shot victory at Muirfield Village that summer marked his fourth win of the season. Like Scheffler, Woods also won The Players that year, too.
As for Sunday’s round, Scheffler did not look like the top player in the world at times. He could not save par out of the bunker on the par-3 4th, which marked his first bogey of the day. Another bogey at the par-3 8th followed as Scheffler could not get up and down from the thick rough beside the green. In between that, though, Scheffler did make a birdie at the par-4 6th.
But that marked his only par-breaker of the day.
Scheffler made plenty of pars, with none bigger than a 25-foot par save on the difficult par-3 16th, maintaining his two-shot advantage. He also made numerous pars because he missed a few good looks at birdie—specifically on the 12th and 13th holes.
Then, on the par-4 17th, Scheffler left his approach in the rough short of the green. He could not save par, thus giving him a one-shot lead going into the 18th and ramping up the drama in the process.
But in the end, Scheffler took care of business under pressure, just as Woods did for all those years in his prime.
And best of all, he won for the first time as a father, with his wife Meredith and son Bennett there firsthand to witness it all.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
