“You just don’t make dumb mistakes, play solid golf, and you win”, was tournament host Jack Nicklaus’ response when asked what makes defending Memorial Champion Scottie Scheffler’s second straight victory at Muirfield Village so special.
Scheffler never lost the lead and never gave anyone much of a chance down the stretch Sunday in another relentless performance, closing with a 2-under 70 for a four-shot victory to join Tiger Woods as the only repeat winners of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.
Slowed by hand surgery at the start of the year from a freak accident, Scheffler appears to be in full stride with one major already in the bag and another around the corner at the U.S. Open.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler win a second straight Memorial with tournament host Jack Nicklaus – Image Getty/PGA
Nicklaus joined Scheffler in the media centre post the final round where he spoke more of Scheffler’s 16th PGA Tour triumph and a third win in his past four starts.
“Well, I think that great players are ones who rise to the occasion and ones who know how to play coming down the stretch in important events”, said Nicklaus.
“Looking at the leaderboard today, he didn’t have — I mean, Ben Griffin’s a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player. Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch.
“But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league. Now, if he would have had — I don’t know who else it might have been, but if he had somebody else at the top, if Xander or somebody like that would have been there, he might have said, Well, that might be a little tougher. I might have to do something different. He didn’t have to.
“I always was a — I just asked Scottie if he watched the leaderboard. He says, Yeah, I do. Well, I did too. I always watched the leaderboard and found out what my competition was and always felt like what level I had to play to fight that competition off. Sometimes you would have to fight it off because you knew they would self-destruct.
“Scottie is such a good player, and he drove the ball beautifully today. Like he said, he drove the ball, but he never put himself in jeopardy. He didn’t put himself in a position to lose the golf tournament. He was always in a position to win. And if he had to do something more spectacular, he was in a position to do so. But he didn’t have to.
“So you don’t take any chances to do that. I mean, the most risky shot that I saw him play, I thought today, was 16. 16, by hitting the ball pin high, he actually gave the opportunity to have the water in play. I thought he would hit it in the front right of the green there.”
