DUBLIN, Ohio: Billy Horschel ended any doubt about his victory at Muirfield Village with an eagle putt from one finish of the inexperienced to the opposite on the fifteenth gap, sending him to a four-shot victory Sunday on the Memorial.
Horschel was staked to a five-shot lead initially of a sun-soaked ultimate spherical and nobody ever acquired nearer than two pictures. He closed with an even-par 72.
There nonetheless a couple of nervous moments.
Horschel’s streak of 49 consecutive holes and not using a bogey ended on the sixth gap. He didn’t make his first birdie till the tenth gap. He needed to scramble for bogey on the par-3 twelfth that dropped his result in two over Aaron Sensible.
Earlier than the lengthy eagle, Horschel saved himself with par putts of 12 toes on the thirteenth gap and eight toes on 14.
After which it was over. From the entrance of the inexperienced on the par-5 fifteenth, Horschel’s putt from simply inside 55 toes had the proper line and excellent velocity, bending left and dropping within the left facet of the cup as he stretched out each arms in a quiet, disbelieving celebration.
“Similar to you, massive man,” Horschel stated to match host Jack Nicklaus when it was over.
His lead was as much as 4 pictures, and it was a cushty end. Horschel completed at 13-under 275 and gained $2.16 million, the most important paycheck of his profession. As an elevated occasion, the win comes with a three-year exemption.
Horschel stated he has discovered from Tiger Woods and Nicklaus that he didn’t have to do something particular with a five-shot lead except the second known as for it. It was calling on the fifteenth gap after Sensible stuffed a wedge into 2 toes for birdie.
“If I needed to do one thing particular, I used to be prepared for it,” he stated. “Making that was enormous.”
Sensible did what he may in a ultimate spherical so troublesome that nobody shot higher than 69. He and Joaquin Niemann had been the one gamers to use any critical stress on Horschel. He opened the again 9 with a pair of birdies sand saved par from the again bunker on the twelfth. However he dropped a shot on the thirteenth simply as Horschel was wanting shaky.
Sensible made a meaningless bogey on the ultimate gap for a 71 to complete alone in second.
Cameron Smith, who had the 36-hole lead, additionally began 5 pictures behind. He had a pair of double bogeys for a 42 on the entrance 9 and was by no means an element.
Niemann, who gained one other elevated occasion at Riviera within the Genesis Invitational, made a robust transfer and was creeping inside vary till his wedge on the 14th discovered a bunker, resulting in double bogey. He answered with two birdies, completed with a double bogey and shot 71. He tied for third with defending champion Patrick Cantlay (71).
Earlier than the handshake with Nicklaus, Horschel was mobbed by his three youngsters. He now has seven PGA Tour victories. His spouse has watched him win. His mother and father have seen him win. This was the primary time his youngsters had been there, they usually had been bouncing on the agency greens.
That may have been as nice as any stress as Horschel felt.
“Having a five-shot lead, realizing it was mine to win, I actually needed to get the monkey off my again,” he stated of profitable together with his youngsters in attendance.
Horschel strikes to only exterior the highest 10 on the planet, the very best he has ever been, due to a yr that lastly has introduced some consistency in a hit-and-miss recreation. He has three victories within the final 15 months, all of them towards sturdy fields — the Dell Match Play and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth final yr, and now this.
It’d even be sufficient to lastly be thought of for a US staff with the Presidents Cup later this yr.
