Justin Rose was looking at a birdie putt on the 16th green while holding a two-stroke lead in the final round of the Memorial Tournament. Then a thunderous roar came from the nearby 15th hole.
Ahh, Rose thought, Rickie Fowler made an eagle and we’re all tied. Except he had the wrong Ricky.
Spurred by that little scare, Rose rolled in his 13-foot birdie putt for some added breathing room, shooting a closing 6-under 66 to win the Memorial by three strokes on Sunday.
“That sounded like an eagle roar to me,” Rose said. “So I thought, OK, here we go. This is all dead even. So I knew the putt at 16 was key.”
Rose, who finished at 18-under 270 to collect the $1,080,000 first prize, isn’t known to be demonstrative. “I just felt like it swung the momentum back my way,” he said.
Rose finished safe with four straight pars. He captured his first US PGA Tour victory in his 162nd career start.
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Misfiring Tiger strikes fans, finishes T-19
Ohio : When Tiger Woods struggled on Sunday, his fans felt his pain — three of them literally.
Woods hit three spectators en route to his closing 72 to tie for 19th at the Memorial, his fourth tournament of the year and his last tuneup before the US Open at Pebble Beach later this month.
“I kept hitting everybody out there,” said Woods, who has a habit of giving an autographed golf glove to any spectator he hits.
Woods pulled his drive at the first and hit Jeramy May in the neck. At the second he hit a fan standing left of the fairway in the back of the leg and at 15 he hit another spectator on the hand.
Despite some wayward shots, Woods said he wasn’t too disappointed with his first competitive outing in three weeks — since his neck injury.
— AFP