How Jean van de Velde famously threw away The Open

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Jon Rahm won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide to join Seve Ballesteros as the only Spaniards to reach No. 1 in the world, a victory he finally wrapped up with a magical shot that would have made his idol proud. Rahm built an eight-shot lead at the turn, only to see it reduced to three shots with three holes to play Sunday on a Muirfield Village course playing its toughest in 42 years. In trouble behind the green on the par-3 16th, with Ryan Palmer facing a 12-foot birdie putt from the fringe, Rahm hit a flop shot from deep grass that came out perfectly. It landed on the fringe, ran toward the hole and dropped for birdie as the fiery Spaniard let out a ferocious fist pump. Palmer took bogey on the 17th, and the coronation was on. The only issue was the score. Replay of Rahm’s chip appeared to show the ball moved ever so slightly when he placed his lob wedge behind it. PGA TOUR officials reviewed it and gave him a two-shot penalty. It didn’t affect the outcome. Rahm was surprised when it was mentioned to him after he finished and said he didn’t realize anything was wrong. “It doesn’t take anything from the shot,” he said. “It’s not going to take anything away from today.” Rahm closed with a 3-over 75 for a three-shot victory over Palmer, the highest final round by a Memorial winner since Roger Maltbie shot 76 in the inaugural year in 1976. The victory was the 10th of Rahm’s career, his fourth on the PGA TOUR and jumps him to No. 8 in the FedExCup standings. He moves past Rory McIlroy in the world ranking by winning against the strongest field of the year. It was the strongest test, too, with the rough not being cut and the greens allowed to bake out because they are being replaced. The fifth green already was stripped as the leaders were on the back nine. Only five players broke par, the fewest for a final round since the Memorial began in 1976. The average score of 75.932 was the highest for the final round since it was 75.972 in 1978. Rahm looked to be playing a different course. He played bogey-free on the front nine with birdies on the two par 5s. That put him eight shots clear on his way to No. 1. And then he made bogey on the 10th. Not a problem. He yanked his tee shot into a creek on the par-5 11th, and that was a bigger problem based on how hard he slammed the club into the ground in a pique of anger. He made double bogey. Palmer made birdie on the 12th, and then Rahm made another bogey from the bunker on the 14th. Just like that, the lead was three shots. Only a week ago at Muirfield Village for the Workday Charity Open, Justin Thomas had a three-shot lead with three holes to play and wound up losing in a playoff to Collin Morikawa. Rahm only wanted his tee shot on the 16th to stay dry, though the rough was not a great option with how fast the greens were running. The chip was similar — but from a different angle — to Tiger Woods chipping in from behind the 16th green when he won the Memorial for the fifth time in 2012. Woods, in his first competition since Feb. 16 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, shot 76 and tied for 40th. “Tough, tough conditions to start out my first week back, Thursday and Sunday,” Woods said. “But it was good to get the feel and the flow of competing again.” Matthew Fitzpatrick had a 68 for the low score of the final day to finish third. The consolation prize went to Palmer (74) and Mackenzie Hughes (72), who earned spots in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in September as the leading two players from the top 10 who were not already eligible. Henrik Norlander could have taken the final spot with a par on the 18th, but he missed the fairway well to the right, couldn’t reach the green and made bogey. Norlander and Hughes tied at 3-under 285, but the spot went to Hughes because he had the better world ranking. That ranking now starts with Rahm, who only five years ago was at the Memorial to receive the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s best college player. On Sunday, Nicklaus was there to greet him behind the 18th green. Nicklaus revealed earlier Sunday he and wife Barbara tested positive for the coronavirus in March, and they have since tested positive for the antibodies. As for the shot behind the 16th? Nicklaus was impressed. So was Rahm. “I still can’t believe it, I’m not going to lie,” Rahm said.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Charles Howell III (69, 5 under) said he knew he was in the minority, but, “I’m a May guy.â€� Justin Thomas (70, also 5 under) declared himself a May guy even before the tournament began. They tied for 35th. Rory McIlroy is a March guy. Jim Furyk, too. They were 1-2, respectively, at THE PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass, which returned to March for the first time since 2006. Did they play well because they’re March guys, or are they March guys because they played well? Maybe both. Or maybe, as McIlroy kept saying all week, attitude was everything. “I’m very thankful to the PGA TOUR for putting it back to March,â€� said McIlroy (70, 16 under). To butcher an old saying, whether you thought you were a March guy or not a March guy at this PLAYERS, you were right. Because Furyk (67, 15 under), too, decided the date helped him.      “A long, wide-open golf course is going to be difficult for me to compete on,â€� Furyk said. “Not that I can’t, but my opportunities and my percentage goes way down. But you put a golf course like this where it’s really important to hit fairways — I’m sure I was in the top five in fairways hit this week. It’s about position.â€� (Furyk was indeed T3 in fairways, 44-of-56, for the week.) But it wasn’t just the top two finishers who suggested THE PLAYERS still plays no favorites.   Dustin Johnson (69, T5), who plays like McIlroy, had his first top 10 here. Brian Harman (70, T8), who plays a precision game more of the style of Furyk, matched his career best (2015). “It definitely — 80 degrees on Friday and really cold today, definitely more variables,â€� said 2018 PLAYERS champion Webb Simpson (68, T16). “The golf course played firm, but the rain came in and softened it out a little bit. It’s definitely more of a guessing game in March.â€� For some who had struggled in May, there was no guessing about the move to March. The date change allowed them to clear the cache, as it were. You could clearly hear Johnson’s enthusiasm even after he won the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship last month. RELATED: Rory’s winner’s bag | Tiger leaves PLAYERS optimistic | Furyk shines with runner-up finish |  “I can’t wait,â€� he said of the new PLAYERS. His T5 was his best result in 11 starts here.    Why was McIlroy thankful for the new date? It starts with something Justin Rose (68, 12 under, T8) mentioned early in the week: The look of the newly overseeded course, specifically the two distinct greens, darker in the rough, lighter in the fairway. The course fit his eye better. “The fairways and the rough are defined,â€� McIlroy said. “Where back in May, the fairway and the rough were the same color, so you didn’t have definition in terms of where you were hitting your tee shots, and I definitely drove it better this week on this golf course because of that.â€� The other benefit, he added, also came down to grass. “You get into this Bermuda in May, it takes a lot of skill out of it,â€� McIlroy said. “It’s sort of hit-and-hope and you have to be lucky and you’re guessing half the time, where the way the overseed is around the greens now, you can actually showcase some of your skills and you can play shots pretty certain knowing what it’s going to do, how it’s going to react.â€� Case in point: After his 347-yard tee shot wound up in the rough fractionally right of the 16th fairway, McIlroy lofted his second shot 174 yards to the green, his ball settling 19 feet left of the pin to set up an easy two-putt birdie. The winning margin, as it turned out. McIlroy won despite being 60th in Strokes Gained: Putting (-1.506) in the final round, by far his worst performance on the greens all week (32 putts). He was 45th in SG: Putting for the week (+.663), meaning he helped himself only marginally on the greens. He led the field, though, in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and was second in SG: Off-the-Tee. And he tied for fourth in driving distance (295.8 yards per pop). He maximized his strengths. Conversely, Furyk excelled by playing his usual precision game. He usually left himself on the short grass off the tee, and by playing from the fairway he helped further bolster his precision iron play as he finished 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green (+4.788). And using his relatively new arm-lock grip, he ranked 15th in SG: Putting (+4.201). “I made my fair share of 15-footers this week,â€� he said. THE PLAYERS in March helped long hitters and short hitters, but it also hurt long hitters and short hitters if they weren’t on their games. It simply demanded total commitment to and execution of one’s strengths, just as it always has. And the X-factor, as always, was attitude.

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