England’s Justin Rose rallied from a four-shot deficit to win the Memorial with a flawless final round on Sunday for his first victory in seven years on the PGA Tour.
Rose played a bogey-free round at Muirfield Village for a 6-under 66 and a three-shot victory over Rickie Fowler.
“I’ve had a few close calls over time, and you start to sometimes wonder why you can’t get it done,” Rose said.
Even his 16-month-old son Leo approved. As Rose held him aloft in his arms, the infant clapped his hands. Then came a handshake from the tournament host, Jack Nicklaus.
“To win here at the Memorial, at Jack’s tournament, I couldn’t think of a better place to win my first tournament,” Rose said.
Fowler, the 21-year-old rookie trying to become the youngest winner on the course Nicklaus built, fell apart briefly on the back nine to fall three shots behind, and never caught up. He closed with a 73 to finish runner-up.
Rose ran off three straight birdies to make the turn, saved par with a 20-footer on the 10th to keep his momentum, then seized control, despite making only one birdie.
Fowler, dressed all in orange, drove into the bunker on No. 10 for bogey. He took birdie out of the equation on the par-5 11th when he laid up into a messy lie behind trees in the left rough. Then came the par-3 12th, where his tee shot bounded off the slope and into the water for a double bogey.
Fowler fought to stay in the mix, but he never got closer than two shots the rest of the way.
Ricky Barnes offset two double bogeys by holing out from the fairway for eagle for the second time this week. He closed with a 73 and tied for third with Bo Van Pelt.
There was quite a roar when Barnes holed his wedge for eagle on the 15th, and Rose could hear it as he stood over a birdie putt just outside 12 feet on the 16th hole. He also heard the fans scream for “Ricky.” He just wasn’t sure which one — Ricky Barnes or Rickie Fowler.
“I knew I had a 50-50 chance,” he said with a grin.
Assuming it was Fowler, Rose buried his birdie putt. It gave him a bigger cushion than he realized.
Tiger Woods, the defending champion, closed with a 72 and tied for 19th to finish 12 shots behind.
Rose’s prospects of victory did not look promising, not with Fowler four shots ahead of him and going 52 holes without a bogey entering the final round.
But he missed only one fairway, and had a stretch of eight consecutive one-putt holes, and before long he was walking across the 18th green to meet with Nicklaus, the tournament host.
Rose finished at 18-under 270 and earned a victory that will move him just outside the top 30 in the world.
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