Scottie Scheffler holds on to win Memorial for his 5th PGA Tour title of the year

Successful has change into a behavior for Scottie Scheffler, besides there was nothing typical about his victory Sunday on the Memorial.

He made just one birdie. He closed with a 2-over 74, his highest closing spherical in two years. And victory wasn’t assured till Scheffler had the mettle to place a agency stroke on a downhill putt from 5 toes above the opening to take out the break.

It went proper within the coronary heart for a one-shot victory over Collin Morikawa, and a handshake with event host Jack Nicklaus. Their change mentioned all of it.

“You are a survivor,” Nicklaus instructed him.

“Thanks,” Scheffler mentioned. “Yeah, you made this place brutal in the present day.”

Scheffler endured extra stress than he wished and received the victory everybody has come to count on, his fifth of the season — one week into the month of June — as he heads for one more powerful take a look at subsequent week within the U.S. Open.

Muirfield Village was so demanding with its extremely agency greens and swirling gusts all through the afternoon that solely six gamers broke par and the common rating was a fraction beneath 75.

Scheffler, who began 4 pictures forward, by no means misplaced the lead. He by no means felt protected, both, not with Morikawa and Adam Hadwin on his heels all afternoon, and on a again 9 the place making par felt like exhausting work. Par is what it took on the 18th gap.

“It is a powerful place to shut out,” Scheffler mentioned. “I didn’t do a complete lot nice in the present day, however I did sufficient.”

Simply barely.

Scheffler was main Morikawa by one shot and each hit method pictures that bounced exhausting and excessive off the inexperienced and into the tough. Each chipped to about 5 toes. Scheffler buried his putt to win, and the pressure of his fist pump to have a good time confirmed how powerful today was on him, and virtually all people.

Making the day much more particular was a current reminiscence with Nicklaus on the Memorial, and cradling month-old son Bennett at his new child’s first PGA Tour occasion.

Scheffler thought again to 2021, when he missed a 6-foot putt on the ultimate gap that ended any probability of a playoff. Strolling off the inexperienced, he remembers Nicklaus telling him in the future Scheffler will make the putt on 18 “and I will be strolling off to shake his hand.”

“It was fairly particular fascinated by that as I used to be strolling over to shake his hand,” he mentioned.

Morikawa, who performed within the closing group of each majors this yr, holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 twelfth gap and stayed on Scheffler’s heels the remainder of the best way. He shot 71, the one one from the ultimate 13 teams to interrupt par.

Adam Hadwin was proper there with them till closing with three straight bogeys for a 74 to complete alone in third.

Scheffler completed at 8-under 280 and gained $4 million from this signature occasion and its $20 million purse. That pushes him over $24 million for the yr, breaking the PGA Tour season earnings document — and it is barely June — that he set final yr on this period of rising purses.

He additionally change into the primary participant since Tom Watson in 1980 to have gained 5 occasions on the PGA Tour earlier than the U.S. Open.

That is subsequent week at Pinehurst No. 2, and Scheffler will go to the U.S. Open as an enormous favourite. This was his eleventh consecutive event with a high 10.

Morikawa picked up $2.2 million and now has a giant cushion as he tries to stitch up the fourth spot for the People going to Paris this summer time for the Olympics.

Hadwin was inside one shot of the lead till ending the entrance 9 with a pair of bogeys. He stayed within the hunt till closing with a pair of bogeys for a 74. Nonetheless, his third-place end strikes him forward of Corey Conners for the second Canadian spot within the Olympics.

The world rating after the U.S. Open determines who goes to Paris.

Scheffler had just one birdie — a 10-foot putt on the sixth gap — and he missed two birdie probabilities inside 10 toes on the again 9 that would have offered a cushion.

However he made the most important one on the par-3 sixteenth.

Scheffler and Morikawa have been each in need of the tremendous slick inexperienced some 90 toes away. Scheffler used putter and hit it weakly, arising 15 toes quick. Morikawa chipped from the collar and in addition hit a pedestrian chip some 20 toes quick.

Morikawa missed his par putt, and Scheffler buried his for a two-shot lead.

Scheffler dropped his closing shot on the seventeenth, nevertheless, and he was clinging once more to a one-shot lead taking part in the powerful 18th that he ended with one final putt.

Subsequent up is the so-called hardest take a look at in golf, and gamers felt like they only received completed with one at Muirfield Village.

“You possibly can take a look at it one in all two methods,” Hadwin mentioned. “Both it is good prep for subsequent week or we simply received our butts kicked earlier than going into subsequent week.”

For Scheffler it is one other victory, his eleventh of his profession and twelfth worldwide. He has completed robust to win huge or come from behind. He has pulled away when it was tight at the beginning. This time, he almost misplaced a four-shot lead.

It was his highest closing spherical since a 74 within the British Open at St. Andrews in 2022. Nevertheless it goes within the ebook as one other huge win towards the strongest fields. He now has gained three signature occasions (Bay Hill and Hilton Head have been the others) to go together with The Gamers Championship and his second inexperienced jacket on the Masters.