Viktor Hovland kept his Norwegian cool as he clinched victory at the Memorial in a one-hole playoff duel against Denny McCarthy.
Hovland handled the toughest stretch at Muirfield Village and delivered three clutch putts at the end to win the Memorial.
The 25-year-old closed with a two-under 70 on another brutal test on a course baked all week by sun, forcing the playoff with a 30-foot birdie on the 17th – the only one on that hole in the final round – and saving par from behind the 18th green.
McCarthy held a one-shot lead heading down the 18th at Jack Nicklaus’s Muirfield Village Golf Club with Hovland in the clubhouse at seven-under.
But the American was wayward left off the tee and found himself in a tough lie that left him no option but to simply advance but down the fairway, leaving himself well short of the green in two.
Viktor Hovland clinched victory at the Memorial in a one-hole playoff against Denny McCarthy
Hovland handled the toughest stretch at Muirfield Village and delivered three clutch putts
McCarthy held a one-shot lead heading down the 18th but was left off the tee forcing a playoff
He safely found the green with his third but his 20-foot putt for par agonizingly lipped out, forcing himself and Hovland back down 18 with the title to play for.
Back to the 18th and the playoff, McCarthy went the opposite way off the tee, leaving his ball buried in the rough above a fairway bunker.
His shot from the right rough rolled back off the green some 50 yards away. He pitched to 12 feet and the putt caught the left edge and spun away.
Meanwhile, Hovland, safe off the tee, barely got onto the front of the green, some 60 feet away from the back pin, and two-putted by holing a 7-foot par putt for the win.
It was his fourth PGA Tour victory and first on American soil, this one with a $3.6 million winner’s check and a handshake from host Jack Nicklaus. The Norwegian’s previous wins were in Mexico twice and Puerto Rico.
‘It’s a little bit surreal right now,’ Hovland said on the CBS broadcast. ‘Playing Jack’s course and playing his tournament and winning it, and for him to be able to see it, he just shook my hand and gave me a couple words of encouragement. That’s pretty awesome.’
Meanwhile, hard-luck McCarthy said he was ‘heartbroken,’ emotion in his voice after his closest call to win on the PGA Tour in his 156th attempt.
This was a final day when so many went in reverse from the 22 players who had been separated by three shots at the start of the round.
Hovland was safe off the tee but barely got onto the front of the green with his second
The Norwegian admitted it was ‘surreal’ to win on the legendary Jack Nicklaus’s course
On his final hole, McCarthy had no option but to simply advance but down the fairway
Rory McIlroy chipped in from below the fourth green for birdie and had the lead on the front nine, but he gave away far too many shots on the back – three bogeys in a row – for a 75 that took him out of the picture.
Scottie Scheffler closed with a 67 and finished third and missed the playoff by one shot, remarkable considering he made the cut on the number. The No. 1 player in the world has not finished worse than 12th in his 13 starts this year.
But what a week to forget with the putter.
Scheffler turned a statistically dominant performance from tee-to-green, picking up 20.7 strokes on the field in that category. But he lost 8.5 strokes to the field in his putting. This might be the best context – it was nearly a 20-shot differential in putting to McCarthy, and Scheffler finished one shot behind.
‘I think a little bit of my struggles with the putting have probably helped me elevate my ball striking, just because if I’m trying to compete out here … with the putts not going in, I’ve got to hit it really good. And I’ve been able to do that,’ Scheffler said.
‘Maybe people are asking me about my putting so much more because I´m hitting it so good,’ he said. ‘When you´re hitting a bunch of greens it´s not easy to make every putt. I mean, if I was putting the best this week, I would have won by a crazy amount of shots.’
That belonged to Hovland, who joined McCarthy (70) at 7-under 281.
Rory McIlroy had the lead on the front nine but gave away far too many shots on the back
Scottie Scheffler closed with a 67 and finished third and missed the playoff by one shot
Hovland, who moves to No. 5 in the world ranking, didn’t feel as though he did anything special. He has had better weeks striking the ball. His lowest round all week was 69. But he was the only player to break par in all four rounds.
‘I played smart. I played my game. And I came up clutch this time,’ Hovland said.
He was particularly strong at the end. The final three were the toughest at Muirfield Village all week. Hovland birdied two of the three on Saturday to get in the mix, and he played them 1 under on Sunday to get into a playoff.
Si Woo Kim, who played in the last group with McIlroy, had a 73 to finish alone in fourth. Jordan Spieth was in the group another shot back.
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