Cantlay rallies with 64 to win Memorial
DUBLIN, Ohio – Patrick Cantlay got another handshake with Jack Nicklaus, this time as the Memorial winner.
Starting four shots behind, Cantlay closed with an 8-under 64 for a twoshot victory Sunday. It was the lowest final round by a winner in tournament history, and it moved the 27-year-old Californian into the top 10 in the world.
Martin Kaymer, trying to end five years without a victory, started with a two-shot lead and never recovered from back-to-back bogeys on the back nine. He shot 38 on the back nine and finished with a 72.
Adam Scott was the last player with a chance to catch Cantlay when he ran off three straight birdies to get within two shots, but he narrowly missed birdies on the last two holes and had to settle for a 68.
Cantlay first met the tournament host in 2011 when he won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the top player in college at UCLA. And he leaned on the advice of Nicklaus going into the final round to relax, enjoy the surroundings and finish it off.
“I finished it,” Cantlay told Nicklaus as he walked off the 18th green after making an 8-foot par putt that effectively sealed it.
Cantlay finished at 19-under 269 and won for the second time in a PGA Tour career that is younger than it seems. A rising star coming out of UCLA – he was low amateur at the 2011 U.S. Open and opened with a 60 at the Travelers Championship a week later – he missed two full years with a back injury that nearly cost him his career.
Scott finished at 17-under 271. Only six other players have had a lower 72hole score at the Memorial since it began in 1976.
One of them is Cantlay, who moves to No. 8 in the world with a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach looming. Cantlay is the only player to finish in the top 10 at both majors this year, leading late at the Masters until two bogeys over the last three holes.
Tiger Woods knew he had no chance to win the Memorial from 11 shots behind going into the final round, though he still put on a show and got what he needed out of his final event before the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He went out in 31 and was 7 under for his round through 12 holes until a sloppy bogey on the 14th and a closing bogey for a 67. He wound up in a tie for ninth at 9-under 279.
U.S. Women’s Open
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Jeongeun Lee6 is No. 1 at the U.S. Women’s Open.
The 23-year-old South Korean shot a 1-under 70, enduring some shaky moments after opening up a three-stroke lead with three to play to hold off thirdround co-leader Celine Boutier.
Lee6 was ahead by three after a birdie on the par-5 15th, but took bogeys on the 16th and 18th to give Boutier a chance over the final two holes. But Boutier missed a long birdie attempt on the 17th and put her approach to the par-4 18th in a bunker. Her sand shot rolled off the green.
Lee6 finished at 6-under 278 to claim the USGA’s first $1 million women’s winner check.
Lee6 has the number in her name because she was the sixth player with the name on the Korean LPGA.
PGA Tour Champions
DES MOINES, Iowa – Kevin Sutherland only needed two extra holes to finish off Scott Parel. Two Sutherland birdied the second extra hole at Wakonda Club to win the Principal Charity Classic in the third-largest comeback in PGA Tour Champions history.
Sutherland overcame an eight-shot deficit in the final round, making eight back-nine birdies.