Trailing by four shots heading into the Memorial’s final round, round one co-leader Justin Rose shot a near-flawless 66 on Sunday to claim his first career PGA tour victory at 18-under par.
“For me, it’s a great way to win,” Rose said. “And to win here at the Memorial, at Jack’s tournament, I couldn’t think of a better place to win my first tournament. It’s a great day.”
Chasing three-round leader Rickie Fowler, Rose said he was able to stay focused on his game and let the rest take care of itself.
“I knew that I was in the hunt all week, but I wasn’t playing golf like I was in the hunt all week,” he said. “I was just in the moment and I thought that paid off for me today.”
Playing nearly mistake-free golf with just one bogey in the first three days, the youngster Fowler was unable to close it out with three bogeys and a double bogey in his final round.
Knotted at 16-under par heading into the par-3 12th hole, Fowler made double bogey to drop two shots back and never held the lead again.
“I was just trying to aim at the back bunker and cut it off a little bit there,” said Fowler. “The ball started going where I wasn’t trying to. So I just made a bad swing and paid for it.”
Although Fowler’s final round 73 resulted in a second place finish at 15-under, he was still pleased with his overall performance this week.
“It was an awesome week,” he said. “Obviously not the round that I wanted today, didn’t hit as many greens as I would like to, but we had a lot of fun.”
Rounding out the top five were Bo Van Pelt and Ricky Barnes in a tie for third at 12-under and Ryan Moore, Phil Mickelson and Tim Petrovic tied for fifth at 11-under par.
World No. 1 Tiger Woods finished out his week with an even par 72, leaving him in a tie for 19th at 6-under for the tournament.
The PGA tour will head south next week for the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Tenn., before heading to the famed Pebble Beach Golf Links in two weeks for the 2010 edition of the U.S. Open.
