Needing two putts from 20 feet to hold off Kevin Chappell, Matt Kuchar made a birdie putt for a 4-under 68 and came away with a two-shot victory at Muirfield Village to win the Memorial Open yesterday.
"There at the end, it got scary," Kuchar said. "[Chappell] made a great run at the end."
Chappell birdied three of the last four holes to make things difficult for Kuchar, who hadn't missed a fairway until the 17th hole when he ended up landing on the bunker to the right of the fairway. With two shots behind going into the 18th, Chappell made a birdie tap-in to put pressure on Kuchar, late in the tournament. Kuchar managed to sink a birdie putt on the 18th to seal the victory.
"His bad shots hit greens. And he's really good with the putter," Chappell said. "And he just doesn't make very many mistakes."
Despite being a five-time winner at Muirfield Village, the golf course proved to be a test for Tiger Woods during the weekend, who triple-bogeyed in the same tournament for the first since 1997, finishing with his second-highest score of his career at 8-over for 296. Woods had a 44 on the back nine Saturday, the worst 9-hole score of his professional career, tying for 65th place and 20 shots behind Kuchar, the largest deficit in a full-field event.
"It happens to all of us, just have to go home and practice," said Woods. "It's just one of those weeks. This week I obviously I didn't putt well."
The win came a week after Kuchar's runner-up finish at the Colonel, losing by one shot, building up great moment going into the U.S. Open, which starts June 13 at Merion Golf Club, outside Philadelphia. Kuchar, who moves up to No.4 in the rankings and joins Woods as the only player with more than one win this season, having won the Match Play Championship in late February.
"Great golf breeds more great golf," said Kuchar. "Winning tournaments breeds winning more tournaments. Anytime you can get comfortable playing in that final group, finishing off a tournament, winning a tournament is a huge amount of confidence. Heading into Merion, I'll have a lot of confidence."
Kuchar has been on quite a roll, having not missed a cut since the 2012 PGA Championship and finishing in the top 10 in five tournaments this season.
"To have kind of sealed the deal with winning this tournament feels really good," said Kuchar. "There are a couple of things I thought were missing from my pedigree. A major championship is on the list, and a multiple-win season was on the list. That's something that at the beginning of the year when I set goals, I wanted to have a multiple-win year."