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With the final putt about a foot from the hole, Victor Hovland was already feeling great.
He’s come close many times in the majors over the past year, finishing in the top ten in the last three, including a second three weeks ago at the PGA Championship. At Oak Hill, he was left contemplating what it might have been when his second on the 70th hole blocked a bunker face.
Then, last week at the Colonials, he was just a shot a second off before a water polo finished him off.
He even had a semi-expensive water polo on the 72nd hole six months ago when he won the unofficial Hero World Challenge.
This week at Memorial, there was no such disaster. Not even a flipped chip on the 12 could knock Hovland this time.
With one of the game’s all-time greats in Jack Nicklaus, Hovland buried a seven-foot putt to beat Denny McCarthy in a playoff to win the Memorial Tournament.
It’s the 25-year-old Norwegian’s fourth title on the PGA Tour, but his first in the continental United States, shedding his reputation as the only winner on tropical courts.
“I feel like I’ve won a ton of tournaments for only being a pro for four years; however, they’ve been in lower key venues, resort courses, and overseas, so it’s really cool to get my first win on US soil,” Hovland said. “Especially in a tournament like this where the golf course this week is arguably tougher than most of the major golf courses we play and the crowds were amazing there. It just felt like a major. So it was really nice to be able to get it done in a place like that.”
Hovland rallied after a slow start in the final round, making four birdies against the only 12 out of the ninth backline during what was a very difficult day in Muirfield Village. The last three holes were the hardest on the course, but Hovland played them in one under, including a lone birdie of the day on the 4 17.
The final turn 70 saw him finish seventh, passing Scotty Scheffler, who had finished nearly three hours earlier, by one. It was after a poor tee shot left Hovland out of position on the 18th, but a safe rebound through the back of the green gave him a chance to easily equalise.
But Hovland still trails McCarthy — who hasn’t bogeyed since Saturday — by one.
But this time, it was Hovland’s opponent who made the mistake. McCarthy drove the tee ball to the left 18, hit the second ball into a bunker and failed to get up and down, setting up the second game in as many weeks on the PGA Tour.
In the playoff, Hovland did not miss twice. He hit the fairway, hit the green and watched McCarthy struggle again on the 18th hole. McCarthy told a cruel lie in the rough this time off the tee and couldn’t make the leading edge of the green. His ball rolled 30 yards down the ramp, and he made a bogey after throwing it to 12 feet.
Hovland said the putt in the playoffs was actually easier than the five-putt he made in regulations.
“Knowing that Denny missed him and it’s basically a free lap, you know, if it works out, I win, if not, we still have a chance,” he said. “So that was a little bit easier and it was kind of up the hill, a little bit straighter.”
Early on, even when Hovland made a ridiculous birdie on the third hole after his tee shot missed about 50 yards to the left, the day looked like it belonged to Rory McIlroy or Scheffler.
McIlroy started the day to tie the three-point lead at sixth under and a slight equal lead at the start gave him the outright lead. At one point he was tied for the lead at seven-under with Scheffler before Scheffler floundered at 17 and finished at six-under.
But McIlroy struggled by controlling the distance on the hard greens and making five bogeys on eight holes midway through the round. faded to 75.