Els - the hottest player in the game? (Getty Images)
Click here for all the latest golf scores
Click here for more golf news
Ernie Els staved off a star-studded group of challengers to win the Memorial
Tournament by four strokes.
Els, who started the day with a two-shot advantage, briefly surrendered his
lead after an early bogey, but that was his only blemish in benign conditions at
Muirfield Village Golf Club.
The South African roared back with seven birdies to card six-under-par 66 to
finish at 18-under 270, while Fred Couples (68) was second on 274.
But it was closer than the final margin indicated as Els led by only two shots
with one hole left.
Tiger Woods, who began the round three back, was very much in the hunt after
three front-nine birdies, but he could only par every hole on the back nine and
finished third, six shots behind.
Els collected £513,000 for his 14th PGA Tour victory, his second this year. It
is his third worldwide victory in 13 starts this year, and he has finished no
worse than seventh in his past six starts.
If not for Phil Mickelson's magnificent finish at the Masters, Els would be
the proud owner of a green jacket and considered the hottest player in the game
in 2004.
Collated final round scores (USA unless stated, par 72):
270 Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 70 66 66
274 Fred Couples 69 69 68 68
276 Tiger Woods 72 68 67 69
277 Justin Rose (Eng) 70 67 69 71
278 KJ Choi (Kor) 71 67 68 72
279 Kenny Perry 72 72 66 69, Stephen Ames (Tri) 69 68 70 72
282 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 72 69 71, Ben Curtis 68 69 73 72, Jay Haas 70 72 69
71
283 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 71 71 70, John Daly 72 69 73 69, J.L. Lewis 70 72
70 71, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 71 71 71 70, Peter Lonard (Aus) 71 73 70 69
284 Jerry Kelly 74 70 70 70, Tom Pernice Jnr. 73 71 71 69, Davis Love III 70
73 72 69
285 Tim Herron 76 71 66 72, John Cook 71 74 71 69, Brad Faxon 72 74 71 68,
Scott McCarron 72 69 75 69
286 Harrison Frazar 73 72 69 72
287 Ted Purdy 74 70 72 71, Chris DiMarco 71 74 72 70, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 74 68
71 74, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 73 69 72 73, Chad Campbell 72 73 74 68, Zach Johnson
69 73 70 75, Tom Lehman 74 69 73 71, Dan Forsman 73 73 67 74, Vijay Singh (Fij)
73 72 71 71
288 Robert Allenby (Aus) 74 74 74 66, Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 73 75 72 68,
Kevin Sutherland 71 70 72 75, Steve Flesch 72 73 72 71, Todd Hamilton 69 70 73
76, Lee Janzen 69 73 72 74, Jeff Sluman 70 73 73 72
289 Tim Petrovic 75 69 71 74, Tim Clark 73 75 69 72, John Rollins 69 74 74 72,
Rich Beem 71 71 72 75, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 71 74 74 70, Stewart Cink 70 74
75 70
290 Len Mattiace 70 73 73 74, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 75 71 74 70, Mark Hensby
(Aus) 74 74 73 69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 73 69 75, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71
71 76 72
291 Briny Baird 76 69 71 75, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 70 73 73, Jeff Maggert 73
69 76 73, Nick Price (Zim) 74 73 72 72
292 Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn) 72 74 74 72, Skip Kendall 77 71 69 75, Brenden
Pappas (Rsa) 73 74 72 73, Arron Oberholser 69 74 72 77, Tommy Armour III 72 72
72 76, Rocco Mediate 71 73 73 75
293 Hunter Mahan 74 70 75 74
294 Mark Calcavecchia 74 72 73 75
295 Billy Andrade 71 73 75 76, Jack Nicklaus 74 73 77 71, Stuart Appleby (Aus)
73 74 70 78
297 Craig Parry (Aus) 71 72 79 75, Woody Austin 73 74 78 72, Paul Azinger 69
74 78 76
298 Shaun Micheel 73 73 80 72, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 74 74 78 72
299 Corey Pavin 71 75 76 77, Frank Lickliter II 71 75 73 80
300 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 70 78 74 78, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 76 78 75
303 Hirofumi Miyase (Jpn) 73 75 77 78
 E-mail Article  Print-Friendly
 Subscribe to RSS Feed
 Post to del.icio.us
 Facebook
Click here to send us your sporting feedback
|
