DUBLIN, Ohio — Winning has become a habit for Scotty Scheffler, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about his victory at the Memorial on Sunday.
He created only one bird. He finished with a 2-over 74, his highest final round in two years. Scheffler wasn’t sure of victory until he putt a solid down putt from 5 feet from the hole to pull out the break.
It went right to the heart for a one-shot victory over Colin Morikawa and a handshake with tournament host Jack Nicklaus. Their exchange said it all.
“You’re a survivor,” Nicklaus told him.
“Thank you,” Scheffler said. “Yeah, you brutalized this place today.”
Scheffler withstood more pressure than he would have liked and earned the win everyone expected, his fifth of the season — one week in June — and he heads for another tough test at the US Open next week.
Muirfield Village was so demanding with its ultra-firm greens and swirling winds throughout the afternoon, only six players broke par and the average score was one under 75.
Scheffler started four shots ahead and never lost the lead. He didn’t feel safe with Morikawa and Adam Hadwin all afternoon, and making par on the back nine felt like hard work. Par is the take on the 18th hole.
“It’s a tough place to close,” Scheffler said. “I didn’t do great today, but I did enough.”
Rarely.
Scheffler led Morikawa by one shot and both hit approach shots hard and high and bounced off the green in the rough. Both scattered about 5 feet. Scheffler buried his putt for the win, and the force of his fist pump to celebrate showed just how tough the day was for him, for practically everyone.
Making the day even more special was a recent memory with Nicklaus at the memorial and cradling one-month-old son Bennett at his newborn’s first PGA Tour event.
Scheffler looked back to 2021, when he missed a 6-foot putt on the final hole that snuffed out a playoff chance. Walking off the green, he recalled Nicklaus saying that one day Scheffler would putt on 18, “I’m going to walk over to shake his hand.”
“It was pretty special to think about it when I was walking up to shake his hand,” he said.
Morikawa, who has played in the final group of two majors this year, 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 71 and was the only one to break par in the final 13 groups.
Adam Hadwin was right there with them until he finished with three straight bogeys for a 74.
Scheffler’s $4 million payday on Sunday surpassed his 2023 total.
Scheffler finished at 8-under 280 and won $4 million from the signature event and its $20 million purse. That pushes him to more than $24 million for the year, breaking the PGA Tour season earnings record — and that was just June — that he set last year in this era of rising purses.
He also became the first player since Tom Watson in 1980 to win five times on the PGA Tour before the US Open.
It’s Pinehurst No. 2 next week, and Scheffler will go into the US Open as the favorite. It was his 11th consecutive top 10 finish.
With $2.2 million, Morikawa now has a big cushion as she tries to finish fourth for the Americans heading to Paris for the Olympics this summer.
Hadwin held a one-shot lead until finishing the front nine with a pair of bogeys. He stayed in the hunt until he finished with a pair of bogeys for 74. However, his third-place finish moved him ahead of Connors to claim the second Canadian spot at the Olympics.
The world rankings after the US Open determine who goes to Paris.
Scheffler had just one birdie — a 10-foot putt on the sixth hole — and missed two birdie opportunities that would have provided a cushion to within 10 feet on the back nine.
But he made a huge one on the par-3 16th.
Both Scheffler and Morikawa were short on the super slick green from 90 feet. Scheffler used the putter and hit it weakly, coming up 15 feet short. Morikawa was detached from the collar and crashed into a 20-foot-long pedestrian chip.
Morikawa missed his par putt and Scheffler buried him for a two-shot lead.
Scheffler dropped his final shot on the 17th, but he clung to a one-shot lead again until the difficult 18th, where he finished one last game.
Next up was the so-called toughest test in golf, and the players felt they had completed one at Muirfield Village.
“You can look at it one of two ways,” Hadwin said. “Good preparation for the next week or we’re kicked off before going into the next week.”
It was another victory for Scheffler, the 11th of his career and 12th worldwide. He has won big or finished strong from behind. While tight in the beginning, he has pulled away. This time, he almost lost the lead by four shots.
It was his highest final round since a 74 at the Open at St Andrews in 2022. But this is another big win against strong fields in the book. He has now won three signature events (Bay Hill and Hilton Head being the others) to go along with his second green jacket at The Players Championship and the Masters.
