DUBLIN, Ohio — Winning has become a habit for Scottie Scheffler, whose reign atop the Official World Golf Ranking shows no signs of stopping, except there was nothing typical Sunday about his victory at the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament.
He made only one birdie for the day. He closed with a 2-over-par 74, his highest final round in two years. And victory wasn’t assured until Scheffler had the mettle to put a firm stroke on a downhill putt from five feet above the hole to take out the break.
It went right in the heart for a one-shot victory over Collin Morikawa, and a handshake with tournament host Jack Nicklaus. Their exchange said it all.
“You’re a survivor,” Nicklaus told him.
“Thanks,” Scheffler told the 18-time major champion. “Yeah, you made this place brutal today.”
Scheffler endured more stress than he wanted and got the victory everyone has come to expect, with this already his fifth of the season as he heads for another tough test in the U.S. Open. The year’s third major will tee off Thursday at North Carolina’s Pinehurst No. 2.
Muirfield Village was so demanding with its ultra firm greens and swirling gusts throughout the afternoon that only six players broke par and the average score was a fraction under 75.
Scheffler, who started four shots ahead, never lost the lead. He never felt safe, either, not with two-time major champion Morikawa and Adam Hadwin on his heels all afternoon, and on a back nine where making par felt like hard work. Par is what it took on the 18th hole.
“This is a tough place to close out,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t do a whole lot great today, but I did enough.”
Just barely. Scheffler was leading Morikawa by one shot, and both hit approach shots that bounced hard and high off the green and into the rough. Both chipped to about five feet. Scheffler buried his putt to win, and the force of his fist pump to celebrate showed how tough this day was on him, and practically everybody.
AP photo by Sue Ogrocki / Memorial Tournament winner Scottie Scheffler, right, hugs Collin Morikawa after Sunday’s final round in Dublin, Ohio.Making the day even more special was a recent memory with Nicklaus at the Memorial, and cradling 1-month-old son Bennett at the newborn’s first PGA Tour event.
Scheffler thought back to 2021, when he missed a six-foot putt on the final hole that ended any chance of a playoff. Walking off the green, he recalls Nicklaus telling him one day Scheffler will make the putt on 18 “and I’ll be walking off to shake his hand.”
“It was pretty special thinking about that as I was walking over to shake his hand,” he said.
Morikawa holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 12th hole and stayed on Scheffler’s heels the rest of the way. He shot a 71, the only one from the final 13 groups to break par.
Adam Hadwin was right there with them until closing with three straight bogeys for a 74 to finish alone in third at 4 under. South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout (72) was third at 3 under, with three players another stroke back: Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (74), England’s Matt Fitzpatrick (69) and Austria’s Sepp Straka (76).
Scheffler finished at 8-under 280 and won $4 million from this signature event and its $20 million purse. That pushes him over $24 million for the year, breaking the PGA Tour season earnings record — and it’s barely June — that he set last year in this era of rising purses.
He also become the first player since Tom Watson in 1980 to have won five times on the PGA Tour before the U.S. Open. Scheffler won the Masters in April for the second major championship of his career and finished in the top 10 at last month’s PGA Championship.
This was his 11th consecutive tournament with a top-10 result.
LIV Golf photo by Charles Laberge via AP / Carlos Ortiz, right, and caddie Michael Kerr review yardage during the final round of the LIV Golf League’s tournament at the Golf Club of Houston on Sunday in Humble, Texas.Happy in Houston
HUMBLE, Texas — Carlos Ortiz won the LIV Golf League’s Houston tournament for his first victory on the Saudi-funded circuit and second big win in the Houston area.
The 33-year-old Mexican closed with a 5-under 67 to beat Polish player Adrian Meronk by a stroke at the Golf Club of Houston. Ortiz won the 2020 Houston Open at Memorial Park for his lone PGA Tour title.
“I love playing here,” Ortiz said. “Obviously, Texas treats me well. It’s my adopted home state. I’m just happy to get it done again in Houston.”
Part of a four-way tie for the lead entering the day, the 33-year-old Ortiz finished at 15-under 201 in the 54-hole tournament. Meronk’s closing 68 helped Cleeks GC win the team title.
Area resident Patrick Reed (68) tied for third at 12 under with Spain’s David Puig (69). Sergio Garcia (68), another Spaniard, was fifth at 11 under.
On Saturday, world-ranked No. 7 Jon Rahm withdrew after playing just six holes because of an infection in his left foot, leaving the two-time major champion’s status in doubt for this week’s U.S. Open.
AP file photo by Charlie Neibergall / Ernie Els has won the past two PGA Tour Champions tournaments, including Sunday’s triumph at the American Family Insurance Championship.Els keeps rolling
MADISON, Wis. — Ernie Els won for the second straight week on the PGA Tour Champions, taking the American Family Insurance Championship when tournament host and 2023 winner Steve Stricker missed a 2 1/2-foot putt on the first hole of a playoff.
Stricker, a 57-year-old American, and Els, a 54-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer from South Africa, shared the second-round lead. Each closed with 3-under 69 in windy conditions at University Ridge to finish the 54-hole tournament at 12-under 204.
Both had birdies on the par-5 16th and pars on the final two holes ahead of the playoff.
Els is the first player to win two straight events on the 50-and-older tour since Stricker won back-to-back majors last year in the Regions Tradition and Senior PGA Championship.
″I know I’m putting well, I’m striking it good,” Els said. “I’m just hanging in there and trying to get my chances where they come.”
Els won for the fifth time on the senior tour, while Stricker has 18 victories but is winless this year.
Australia’s Cameron Percy (67) was third at 9 under, with Stephen Ames (67), Doug Barron (66) and Thomas Bjorn (69) all another stroke back.
AP photo by Chris Szagola / Linnea Strom hits from off the fairway on the 13th hole during the final round of the LPGA Tour’s ShopRite Classic on Sunday in Galloway, N.J.Huge comeback
GALLOWAY, N.J. — Linnea Strom shot a tournament-record 11-under 60 to overcome a seven-stroke deficit and win the ShopRite Classic by a shot for her first LPGA Tour title.
After making the cut on the number Saturday, the 27-year-old from Sweden teed off on the Bay Course at Seaview Resort at 8:20 a.m., which was 3 hours and 40 minutes before the final group started.
Strom had an eagle — chipping in from 15 feet on the par-5 ninth — and nine birdies to get to 14-under 199 in the 54-hole event.
“This is proof that you should never give up. Just go out there and give it your all,” said Strom, who closed with three straight birdies to win after missing the cuts in five of her past six events.
She had the lowest final-round score by a winner in LPGA Tour history and matched the second-lowest score overall. Annika Sorenstam set the record with a 59 in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING. The previous best final round for a winner was a 61 by Inbee Park in the 2014 Manulife Financial Classic.
Strom started the day tied for 52nd for by far the biggest comeback by position on the tour since 1984. The previous largest comeback by position since 1984 was Ayako Okamoto in a tie for 23rd at the 1987 Lady Keystone Open.
Japan’s Ayaka Furue (65) and American player Megan Khang (66) tied for second, with Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul (65) fourth at 12 under and Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux (66) another stroke back in fifth.
TT photo by Jonas Ekstromer via AP / Linn Grant raises the trophy Sunday after winning the Scandinavian Mixed, which features golfers from both the Ladies European Tour and the DP World Tour.Grant repeats
HELSINGBORG, Sweden — Linn Grant chipped in for a birdie on the final hole and repeated her landmark feat by winning the Scandinavian Mixed, her second time winning an official DP World Tour event.
It was a stunning hometown win for the 24-year-old Grant, who started the final round 11 shots behind and closed with a 7-under 65 for a one-shot victory over fellow Swedish player Sebastian Soderberg (77), who faltered late, and Scotland’s Calum Hill (69), who had birdies on three of his last six holes.
Grant finished at 17-under 271 in the 72-hole event.
The tournament is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour — Europe’s top men’s circuit — and the Ladies European Tour, with men and women playing the same course (although with a shorter set of tees for the women) for the same trophy and same purse.
Soderberg held a one-shot lead playing the par-4 18th at Vasatorps Golfklubb when he went into a bunker. He blasted out to 25 feet, missed the par putt, and then his bogey putt from 15 inches spun all the way around and out of the cup. His double bogey secured Grant’s title defense.
“I just tried to go out today and give myself an opportunity,” said Grant, who has eight LET victories and one on the LPGA Tour. “I didn’t even think that I had the chance of winning; 11 shots is a huge gap.”