Round 4 Notebook: the Memorial Tournament

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Jun. 6, 2010
By Laury Livsey, PGA TOUR Staff

Weather: There were early morning thunderstorms, leaving more than a half-inch of rain on the course. The remainder of the day was a mixture of sun and clouds. Winds were from the northwest at 15 to 20 mph, gusting to 30 mph. The high was 78. Due to the week-long inclement weather, officials grouped players in threesomes off two tees. The final round was played with preferred lies in closely mown areas.

• Five of the top-10 finishers this week are in their 20s, led by champion Justin Rose, who is 29 years, 10 months, 6 days. The other top-10 finishers under 30 are Rickie Fowler (age 21, second), Ricky Barnes (age 29, tied for third), Ryan Moore (age 27, tied for fifth) and Rory McIlroy (age 21, tied for 10th).

• With the win this week, Rose moved into 13th place in the FedExCup standings. Rose finished 16th in 2007, 114th in 2008 and 85th in 2009. Ernie Els remains the overall 2010 leader, but Jim Furyk continues to close the gap. The duo has been separated by 223 points for the last three weeks, but after Els missed the cut this week, Furyk has drawn to within 150 points.

• Barnes had hole-out eagles on No. 11 in the third round and then did the same thing Sunday on the par-5 15th. His first eagle came from 108 yards. His hole-out Sunday was an 87-yarder. Coming into this week's event, Barnes had two eagles for the entire season.

• By winning the Memorial, Rose became the 11th player to capture the Memorial while also counting a runner-up finish at the tournament. Here is the list:

Winner Winning Year(s) Year(s) Runner-Up
Roger Maltbie 1976 1982
Tom Watson 1979, 1996 1980
David Graham 1980 1983
Hale Irwin 1983, 1985 1976, 1988
Greg Norman 1990, 1995 1997
Paul Azinger 1993 2001
Vijay Singh 1997 1999
Fred Couples 1998 2004, 2005
Jim Furyk 2002 1997, 2009
Ernie Els 2004 2000
Justin Rose 2010 2008

• Sunday's stroke average was 2.113 strokes higher than Saturday's. There were only seven rounds in the 60s Sunday, with wind gusting to 30 mph throughout the day.

• Rose's three-stroke win was the largest at this event since Els won by four shots in 2004.

• After 26 eagles through the first three rounds, there were only four Sunday. Two came at No. 15, by Adam Scott and Ricky Barnes, with Mark Calcavecchia making a 3 at No. 5 and the other eagle coming at the par-3 eighth, a hole-in-one by John Senden. It was Senden's third career TOUR ace, with the others at the 2003 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (Poppy Hills Golf Club) and the 2006 British Open (Royal Liverpool). Senden's was the 18th ace in Memorial Tournament history.

• The last player to record four rounds in the 60s at the Memorial was Bart Bryant on his way to victory in 2005 (69-69-66-68). Both Rickie Fowler and Tim Petrovic had opportunities to accomplish that going into the final round, but Fowler shot a 73 and Petrovic a 74. Four rounds in the 60s has only been accomplished eight times in Memorial Tournament history, with Fred Couples (1998 and 2004) the only player to do it twice. The others are Hal Sutton (1986), Paul Azinger (1993), Tom Lehman (1994), Steve Elkington (1995) and Tiger Woods (2001). Only Elkington and Couples, in 2004, didn't win the tournament.

• Fowler's runner-up finish this week was his third second-place PGA TOUR showing since he turned pro in 2009. A year ago, Fowler tied for second at the Frys.com Open. Earlier this season, he was second at the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

• Outside of Roger Maltbie winning the inaugural tournament, no player competing in his first Memorial has gone on to win. Fowler, Ricky Barnes, Brendon de Jonge and Spencer Levin were all in the top six when the final round began but none of the four could win. Here are the 11 players playing in their first Memorial Tournament who made the cut this week and how they finished:

Player Final Position Scores
Rickie Fowler 2 65-66-69-73--273
Ricky Barnes T3 70-71-62-73--276
Rory McIlroy T10 72-68-68-71--279
Brendon de Jonge T12 71-69-65-75--280
Chad Collins T23 73-72-68-71--284
Andres Romero T23 67-75-70-72--284
Spencer Levin T33 68-68-71-79--286
Tom Gillis T41 71-72-71-73--287
Peter Hanson T41 71-71-74-71--287
Martin Laird T60 72-71-73-75--291
Henrik Stenson T60 73-70-72-76--291

• Calcavecchia put together a nice bookend finish to his Memorial career Sunday as he prepares for the Champions Tour. Calcavecchia made his first two eagles at the Memorial in 1991 at No. 15 in the first and third rounds. This week, he twice made eagle on the fifth hole, rolling in a 27-foot, 7-inch putt Sunday to follow the eagle he made there in the first round. In 24 tournaments and 79 rounds played, Calcavecchia made 12 eagles at Muirfield Village -- with seven coming at No. 15, three at No. 5, one at No. 7 and one at No. 11.

• Prior to this week, Rose had won the third-most career money on TOUR without the benefit of a win. He drops from that list headed by Brett Quigley and Briny Baird.

• Tiger Woods, the world's No. 1-ranked player, shot an even-par 72 to tie for 19th. The four-time Memorial winner suffered his worst finish at Muirfield Village since he tied for 22nd in 2002.

• Seven past champions accounting for 12 Memorial titles made the cut this week. Here's how they finished:

Player Year(s) Won 2010 Finish
Jim Furyk 2002 T10
Vijay Singh 1997 T12
Kenny Perry 1991, 2003, 2008 T17
Tiger Woods 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 T19
Carl Pettersson 2006 T28
Tom Lehman 1994 T41
K.J. Choi 2007 T52

• After missing four cuts and finishing no better than a tie for 33rd (Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial) in his last six tournaments, Vijay Singh had his second consecutive tournament playing all eight rounds at par or better. Singh birdied the last hole Sunday for a 1-under 71. He tied for 12th.

Andres Romero finished his adventure at the par-5 15th hole Sunday with a birdie-4 to go with his Thursday par-5, his Friday triple-bogey-8 and his Saturday eagle-3. He was even par on the hole for the week.

• The Memorial Tournament has the longest active playoff drought on the PGA TOUR. The last playoff at the Memorial was in 1992 when David Edwards defeated Rick Fehr with a par on the second extra hole.

• Scoring averages at the par-72 Muirfield Village Golf Club:

Round Front 9 Back 9 Total Cumulative
Thursday 35.683 36.392 72.075 72.075
Friday 35.717 36.925 72.642 72.358
Saturday 35.239 35.732 70.972 72.042
Sunday 36.070 37.014 73.085 72.236
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