While the U.S. Open is still a couple of weeks away, there was certainly no shortage of intriguing storylines from around the world of professional golf this past weekend. Our golf recap includes a strong sleeper play, who emerged out of nowhere to best the big three at the Memorial this week. Meanwhile an Englishman boosted his chances of competing in this year’s Ryder Cup with a win at the Nordea Masters and the defending champion successfully defended her title at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Here is a recap of the events from around the golf world this past weekend.
The Memorial
PGA Tour
William McGirt stole the show at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio with his first victory in 165-career starts on the PGA Tour. McGirt played the final 22 holes of the event without a bogey to force a playoff with Jon Curran and a par putt on the second playoff hole was the difference in his win. McGirt shocked the world in a star-studded event that included the top three golfers in the world in Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. That trio of players had all of the headlines as we entered the tournament but none really made much more than a peep. While McIlroy had a good showing – he had the fourth best score on the board – Day and Spieth were way off the pace. Day struggled with a 74 in the final round to slide to a tie for 27th at nine-under while Spieth strung together a 74 and a 73 on consecutive days en route to tying for 57th.
The win elevated him to No. 43 in the world rankings and earned him a spot in the U.S. Open. McIlroy finished with the best score of the big three as he shot a 13-under 275 to finish tied for fourth – two strokes back of the playoff. One thing to note in our golf recap of the PGA Tour is the performance of Dustin Johnson, who impressed with a third place at 14-under.
Top 10 Scores From The Memorial Tournament
William McGirt -15
Jon Curran -15
Dustin Johnson -14
Rory McIlroy -13
J.B. Holmes -13
Gary Woodland -13
Matt Kuchar -13
Patrick Reed -12
Keegan Bradley -12
Kevin Streelman -12
Nordea Masters
European Tour
We start our EPGA Tour golf recap with England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick, who boosted his chances to compete in this year’s Ryder Cup with a victory at a slightly less star-studded event in the Nordea Masters from the Bro Hoff Slot Golf Club. It was Fitzpatrick’s second-career win on the European tour and in addition to the 250,000 euro prize he also gained an automatic entry in to the Open championship. Fitzpatrick took a five-stroke lead in to the final round and a 71 on Sunday was enough for him to clinch the victory with a three-stroke cushion ahead of Lasse Jansen of Denmark. Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts finished third at 12-under followed by Sweden’s Henrik Stenson and Bjorn Hellgren finishing tied for fourth at 10-under.
Top 10 Scores From The Nordea Masters
Matthew Fitzpatrick -16
Lasse Jensen -13
Nicolas Colsaerts -12
Bjorn Hellgren -10
Henrik Stenson -10
Ross Fisher -9
Rikard Karlberg -8
Raphael Jacquelin -6
Lee Westwood -6
Johan Edfors -5
ShopRite LPGA Classic
LPGA Classic
We start our golf recap on the LPGA Tour with Anna Nordqvist, who successfully defend her title with a seven-under 64 in the final round to secure her second consecutive victory at the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Nordqvist became the oldest winner on the LPGA Tour this year by five years and the first to successfully defend her title since Inbee Park did it at the KPMG Women’s PGA for the third straight time last year. Rookie sensation Ariya Jutanugarn skipped out on this event following three straight wins while world No. 1 Lydia Ko was among the other notable absentees from this year’s field. We talked about the absence of both being a big story heading into the event and it proved to be exactly what Nordqvist needed. We’ll see how she does when they are both in the field in the coming weeks.
Top 10 Scores From The ShopRite LPGA Classic
Anna Nordqvist -17
Haru Nomura -16
Karine Icher -14
Christina Kim -13
Jing Yan -11
Annie Park -10
Mika Myazato -10
Brittany Lang -10
In-Kyung Kim -10
Christel Boeljon -10
