Scottie Scheffler became the first player to win five times in a single season since 2017 when he scrapped it out with Collin Morikawa to win the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
In very US Open like conditions Scheffler battled to a final round of 74 which was good enough to win by the minimum on eight-under-par while Morikawa claimed second place after a 71.
It’s a first win for Scheffler as a father and he becomes the second player to win both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial in the same season. Tiger Woods repeated the feat four times.
The world number one has now converted five successive 54-hole leads into a win and he now has a larger gap over Xander Schauffele (2nd) at the summit of the FedEx Cup rankings than there is between 2nd and 100th.
Teeing off with a three-shot lead Scheffer looked in control through six holes with a bogey on the 4th and a birdie on the 6th maintaining his advantage over Adam Hadwin and he was five clear of Morikawa.
However, he gave the chasing pack a chance with a dropped shot on the 8th and a cold putter that saw him rank 42nd out of 52 players on the final day.
Morikawa, a 2020 winner here, launched his charge with birdies on the 7th, 9th and 12th to climb to within one. But he couldn’t draw level with Scheffler, passing up a guilt edged birdie opportunity on the par-5 15th before falling two behind with a clumsy bogey on 16 as Scottie rolled in from 15-feet for a turning point par.
The putter was hot for Scheffler, but only briefly as he dragged a par effort left on 17 to allow Morikawa to trim the gap back to one heading down the 18th.
Both players missed the final green long with Morikawa threatening the hole with his chip before Scheffler left himself five feet for the win.
Knowing if he missed that Morikawa would be ready to pounce, Scheffler poured his par putt in rendering Morikawa’s par attempt inconsequential and he heads to Pinehurst for the US Open the overwhelming favourite.
Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were paired together in the final round and rather than galvanise each other like they did at the Zurich Classic, they dragged each other down.
McIlroy fell to a final round of 76 while Lowry tumbled down the leaderboard into 49th place with an 85 that included two double bogeys and a triple.