Cantlay and Morikawa (71) were tied for the lead after the 18th hole, but Cantlay’s 25-foot birdie putt missed to the right. They finished at 13 under.
Rahm’s score of 198 after 54 holes was tied for the Memorial course record. Although it has happened six times before on the PGA Tour, most recently with Dustin Johnson in Shanghai in 2017, no one has ever lost such a significant lead in the final round at Muirfield Village before.
Cantlay Described the Incident
Nicklaus anticipated that Cantlay and Morikawa’s social predicament would serve as another another obstacle for the pair to overcome.
Cantlay described the incident as “quite strange and very tragic.” “No one more than myself can deny that the world as we know it now would be considerably different if that hadn’t occurred. However, I was unable to stop it. I made a sincere effort to reorient my attention and get back on track.”
It resulted in his fourth career PGA Tour victory and second of the year. Cantlay also came back from a three-shot deficit to overcome Rahm and Justin Thomas to win the ZoZo Championship in California last October.
He joins Tiger Woods (who has won the Memorial five times), Jack Nicklaus (the tournament’s namesake), and a select group of six others as the seventh player to win the tournament more than once.
Even though Morikawa lost the Memorial, he did win at Muirfield Village last year. After the pandemic forced the cancellation of the John Deere Classic, he beat Thomas in a playoff at the one-time event, the Workday Charity Open.
After twice seeing Thomas have putts on the 18th green to win, Morikawa eventually prevailed in the tournament’s third extra hole.
There was a birdie putt on the regulation hole that Cantlay just missed. For the playoff’s 18th hole, Morikawa’s ball had a bit of muck on it, so he missed the fairway and found himself in thick rough. Up to 6 feet, he chipped away.
Cantlay was in the proper place to cut it out of the bunker, but his shot from the soft sand rolled 12 feet. The shot was on the same line as his failed 25-foot try for a birdie during regulation, but he made no mistake this time and made par. Cantlay heaved a sigh of relief as Morikawa missed his 6-footer and then went to shake hands with Nicklaus.
After Rahm was eliminated from the competition, Scottie Scheffler, who started the day three strokes down, matched for the lead with a birdie on the 15th hole. When he missed a par putt from six feet out on the 18th hole, he knew it was his last opportunity. He ended up with a score of 70 thanks to that, which put him in solo third place, two strokes back.
Last Words
The highest-placed Canadian was Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, British Columbia. His final round of 72 was even, putting him at 3-over par for the tournament. With a score of 77, Listowel, Ontario’s Corey Conners fell to a tie for 53rd place.
