DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Scottie Scheffler is winning with such alarming regularity that describing his dominance is not a comfortable topic. So when he won the Memorial on Sunday for the second straight year, he at least had tournament host Jack Nicklaus at his side.
Nicklaus is a great authority when it comes to Scheffler because the Golden Bear sees so much of himself in the world’s No. 1 player.
“Once I got myself into position to win, then you’ve got to be smart about how you finish it,” Nicklaus said after watching Scheffler turn a tussle into a four-shot victory. “And that’s the way he’s playing. He reminds me so much of the way I like to play.”
That’s how it transpired again at tough Muirfield Village, just the way it played out when Scheffler won the PGA Championship two weeks ago.
He’s always there. He rarely makes a mistake. Blink and the lead is up to four shots.
Scheffler never lost the lead and never gave anyone much of a chance down the stretch in another relentless performance. He closed with a 2-under 70 in conditions that felt like a dress rehearsal for the U.S. Open. He was the only player to break par all four days.
Scheffler, who won for the ninth straight time with a 54-hole lead, joined Tiger Woods as the only repeat winners of the Memorial. Woods won three in a row (1999-2001) among his five titles at Muirfield Village.
This wasn’t his best golf. Scheffler did have a birdie putt until the fifth hole and only hit four of the first 10 greens in regulation. Coming off a bogey from the rough on the 10th hole — his only bogey in the last 40 holes — his lead was one shot over Ben Griffin.
Scheffler had a birdie putt from just inside 15 feet on the par-5 11th. Griffin chipped to 4 feet for a birdie chance. Scheffler made, Griffin missed. Scheffler his the middle of the green on the next two holes. Griffin missed them and made bogey.
The lead was four shots.
“Only one bogey around this place is pretty good,” Scheffler said. “I hit a lot of fairways. I definitely wasn’t in the rough very much. I think I hit it in the rough off of 10, but outside of that, I don’t think I was really in the rough at all. Around this place, that’s going to be key.”
He made it all sound so simple, even if it never feels that way.
“It’s always a hard week,” said Scheffler, who finished at 10-under 278. “We battled really hard on the weekend. Overall it was a great week.”
Griffin tried to make it interesting at the end with a 12-foot eagle on the par-5 15th (after Scheffler narrowly missed his 15-foot eagle try) and a 25-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th (Scheffler’s birdie putt was one turn from falling).
That pulled him to within two shots with two to play. Scheffler, however, doesn’t make mistakes. Fairway and green on 17th, fairway and green on the 18th.
Griffin made double bogey on the 17th.
“I’m definitely proving further more that I belong at the top in this game,” Griffin said. “I won twice the last five weeks and those feelings are fun on Sunday nights when you’re signing a bunch of flags. I was prepared to do that today and ultimately just didn’t execute how I wanted to to get it done.”
Griffin made a 4-foot par on the 18th for a 73 to finish alone in second, worth $2.2 million, more than what he earned when he won at Colonial last week.
Sepp Straka (70) finished another shot back.
“You know Scottie’s probably going to play a good round of golf. The guy’s relentless. He loves competition, and he doesn’t like giving up shots,” Straka said. “But it’s one of those courses where it can always happen, so you got to be prepared for it. I felt like I gave myself a lot of chances to kind of make a push.”
Rickie Fowler had his first top 10 of the year at just the right time.
He made par on the 18th to tie for seventh, earning him a spot in the British Open. Fowler tied with Brandt Snedeker at 1-under 287, but gets the one Open exemption available based on a higher world ranking — Fowler at No. 124, Snedeker at No. 430.
“That’s one I’ve wanted on the schedule,” said Fowler, who faces a 36-hole qualifier for the U.S. Open on Monday.
Scheffler has won three times in his last four starts — the exception was Colonial, a tie for fourth the week after winning the PGA Championship — and expanded his margin at No. 1 in the world to levels not seen since Woods in his peak years.
For Scheffler, it was his fifth victory in a $20 million signature event in the last two years.
With mud on the golf ball in the first fairway, too much spin on short irons on the next few holes, Scheffler didn’t have a birdie putt until the fifth hole. He saved par seven times in the final round, including the final hole.
His last three victories have been by eight shots (Byron Nelson), five shots (PGA Championship) and four shots (Memorial).
“Scottie, he didn’t play — for him — spectacular golf,” Nicklaus said. “He played what he should do. He played good, solid, smart golf. Three 70s and a 68, that’s pretty good golf under the conditions that were out there. That’s what the best player in the world does.”
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