William McGirt and Jon Curran (both of whom have been playing strong golf) held off the likes of Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar to duke it out in a two-hole playoff which McGirt won with an up-and-down par on the 18th at Muirfield Village. The final hole will get all the attention (as it should), but it was actually a bunker save on the first playoff hole that was McGirt's best shot in overtime.
This was McGirt's first PGA Tour win, which has become a theme at this tournament. He joins David Lingmerth (2015), Hideki Matsuyama (2014) and Justin Rose (2010) as players who have gotten their first wins at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event.
The most fascinating part of McGirt's win might be how it happened -- with a packed leaderboard full of superstars late on a Sunday. Why is that fascinating for McGirt? He once had a conversation with Tiger Woods, who told him that he was an idiot for not looking at leaderboards.
McGirt took the advice to heart.
Rory backdooring a top 10 finish is among the most assured events in all of sports. He pulled it off again this week at Memorial despite making three bogeys on par 5s this week which for him is a borderline felony.
Jordan Spieth's worst finish up to this point at a tournament where he made the cut this year was a T21 at Pebble Beach. He finished T57 at the Memorial with a poor weekend of 74-73.
Jason Day shot a 71 on Friday but said it could have been an 80 and backed that up with something closer to 80 on Sunday with a 74. Still tied his all-time best finish here of T27.
Dustin Johnson finished third alone (one shot out of the playoff) and vaporized drives all week including one that flew 383 yards on the 71st hole of the tournament. He'll be a big story coming into the U.S. Open. He would have been anyway, but with the hot hand and abomination at last year's national open, Johnson will be tough to ignore at Oakmont.
Rickie Fowler missed the cut by two strokes on Friday after a poor showing on Thursday. That's three missed cuts in his last five events (including the Masters and Players Championship). He also sprinkled in a T4 at Quail Hollow.
