Scheffler hangs on at The Memorial, Strom's Historic Round Leads To Victory | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing 
June 9th, 2024 

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. It was a busy week in the world of professional golf, with the PGA Tour at Muirfield for The Memorial Tournament as players gear up for next week’s U.S. Open, and the LPGA Tour was in Galloway, NJ for the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

The Memorial - Tournament History 

Jack Nicklaus grew up in the Columbus, Ohio community. In 1974, Nicklaus designed what many consider his signature course at Muirfield Village and just two years later it hosted the first Memorial Tournament. The par-72 stretches to nearly 7,400 yards and is one of the most difficult courses on tour each season – just the way the Golden Bear wants it to play. Roger Maltbie was the winner of the inaugural event in 1976 at even par after defeating Hale Irwin in a four hole playoff. Nicklaus himself won the following year in 1977. Tiger Woods had tremendous success at Muirfield throughout his career, winning it on five occasions often in dramatic fashion. 

One of the traditions at the Memorial takes place after the final putt drops on Sunday. The winner gets to walk off the green and be greeted with a handshake and a smile from the tournament host and 18-time major champion. 

This week serves as great U.S. Open prep for a lot of the players. Being that it is a signature event and it falls the week before a major, pretty much all of the tour’s top players are in the field. The course is set up as tough as possible by Jack, giving the players a good test of their game a week before the season’s third major championship. The most recent five champions of the Memorial are as follows: 

2024 - Scottie Scheffler (-8)
2023 - Viktor Hovland (-7)
2022 - Billy Horschel (-13)
2021 - Patrick Cantlay (-13)
2020 - Jon Rahm (-9) 

The Big Swing 

Like a broken record, this week the big swing belongs to Scottie Scheffler. The world No. 1 entered the week “under the radar” having not played since the Charles Schwab Challenge where he finished T2. Muirfield Village was sure to test all the players this week including Scheffler, but after rain early in the week the players were able to take advantage of a soft course on Thursday and post some solid scores. 

Scheffler opened with a 67 while fellow contenders at this year’s Masters, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg, each opened with 68. But it was Canadian Adam Hadwin who set the pace after shooting 66 on Thursday to grab the early lead. 

The course got tougher on Friday, but that didn’t stop Viktor Hovland from backing up his opening 69 with another on Friday. The defending champion was an impressive 6-under par heading to the weekend. Scheffler kept his momentum going and shot another good round of 68 on Friday while Aberg and Hadwin each shot 72, and Morikawa 74. The low round of the day on Friday belonged to South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout who fired 67 with only 20 putts in his second round. 

Saturday brought more of the same tough conditions while adding a little more wind to the mix. Of the guys near the top of the leaderboard, it was Scheffler, Morikawa, and Sepp Straka who handled the challenge the best, shooting 71, 68, and and 68 respectively. For the world No. 1, shooting just 1-under was really all he needed to do. His play the first two rounds had been so good that even after a third-round 71 provided a four-shot cushion heading into Sunday. For Morikawa, it wasn’t the first time he’d found himself chasing Scheffler this season. Morikawa has been playing great golf lately, not finishing outside the top 25 since before the Masters in April, with multiple top-5’s in that mix. But he still had yet to find the winner’s circle, and another opportunity waited on Sunday. 

As the final round unfolded, it was clear that there was nothing special out there for the players. The course was incredibly difficult and none of the chasers could post anything low enough to really threaten Scheffler’s lead. With Straka, Hadwin, Bezuidenhout, and Aberg all struggling, it came down to a two-horse race between Scheffler and Morikawa. With Scheffler 1-over at the turn and Morikawa 1-under, the lead had been cut to two with just nine holes to play. 

Morikawa moved to within one of the lead with a long birdie putt at No. 12, and the difference remained one stroke for most of the back nine and entering the final hole. After both of their approach shots settled in the thick rough long of the green, it would come down to a chipping contest. Morikawa played first, and hit a beautiful chip down the slope ending up about five feet past the hole. With the pressure on, Scheffler responded, pitching his down the same slope but coming up approximately five feet short, leaving a knee-knocker for the win. 

The par putt found the center of the cup, spoiling Morikawa’s chances at stealing it in extra holes. Scheffler adds to his list of impressive victories this year and becomes the only player since Tiger Woods to win The Masters, The Players, and The Memorial in the same season. This victory also marks his first as a father, and his first career win outside the months of February, March, and April. 

Winner’s Bag - Scottie Scheffler 

TaylorMade staffer and world #1 Scottie Scheffler dominated the field at Muirfield Village thanks to precision ball striking and pure grit. The winning machine used the same bag of clubs he’s used to win all five events this season. Starting with the driver, Scottie games the new Taylormade Qi10 (8 degrees). He also carries a matching Qi10 3-wood (15 degrees). Scottie plays two Utility irons, the Srixon ZU85s (3-4 iron). His irons have become a staple, the Taylormade P7TW’s (5-PW). Scottie’s wedges are fairly unique in that he’s playing Titleist SM8’s which are now two generations old. He carries a 50 and a 56 degree in the SM8 head, and his lob wedge is a WedgeWorks Prototype (60 degrees). The club that started all the success this year is the putter, the Taylormade Spider Tour X, which he switched to after struggling mightily on the greens early in the season. 

In the World of Women’s Golf 

This week the ladies best gathered in Galloway, New Jersey for the ShopRite Classic, a unique event on the LPGA circuit in that it’s a 54-hole event. 

After a missed cut at the U.S. Open, world No. 1 Nelly Korda took this week off. Even without Korda, there was still plenty of firepower in this week’s field including Jenny Shin, Megan Khang, Atthaya Thitikul, and Brooke Henderson. 

Setting the pace on Friday morning was 22-year-old Arpichaya Yubol. The youngster from Thailand fired an opening-round 61 and looked like she’d be tough to beat. Jenny Shin also played well on Friday, shooting 63. The 31-year-old from South Korea was looking for her first win since May of 2016. 

But none of that matters, because history was made in a big way during the final round on Sunday. Lienna Strom opened her tournament with rounds of 69 and 70, and she sat in a tie for 52nd and seven shots off the lead entering the final round, seemingly an afterthought. But an unprecedented round of golf happened that quickly vaulted Strom into contention. 

After making par on the first two holes, Strom made four birdies and an eagle to finish the front nine to shoot six-under 31. She carried that momentum into the back nine, adding five more birdies, including the final three holes. In the end it was an 11-under 60, the lowest final round score in LPGA Tour history, to lift her to 14-under-par and, for the moment, at the top of the leaderboard. 

All she had to do after her round was wait. Megan Khang and Ayaka Furue were the players primed to give Strom’s clubhouse lead a run. Khang was at 14-under with just three to play, but a bogey on the 16th dropped her back to 13-under. She was unable to birdie either of the final two holes and would come up one short. Meanwhile, Furue was at 13-under with three to play, and was also unable to make another birdie. The pair each shot impressive rounds of 66 and 65, but Strom’s 60 was just too good. Strom picked up her first win in historic fashion, shooting the lowest final round score and making the biggest comeback in LPGA history.