DUBLIN, Ohio — The toughest test Steve Stricker faced Sunday at the Memorial was when he wasn’t even playing golf.
With a three-shot lead and just more than five holes remaining, Stricker had to spend two hours in the clubhouse waiting out a storm delay, leaving him plenty of time to imagine what could go wrong.
“It’s hard not to think about those last closing holes and just the unknown,” Stricker said. “At that point, you just want to get it done.”
Stricker faced two clutch par putts down the stretch — from 15 feet on No. 16 and from 7 feet on No. 17 — and put both in the center of the cup. He closed with a 4-under-par 68 for a one-shot edge over Matt Kuchar and Kent Denver graduate Brandt Jobe.
“It’s a great thrill, a dream come true,” said Stricker, who was greeted by host Jack Nicklaus afterward and finished at 16-under 272.
Stricker moved to No. 4 in the world to become the highest- ranked American for the first time in his career. He won for the 10th time in his career.
Kuchar and Jobe, the only players who could sustain the chase, each closed with a 65 to tie for second.
“I thought if we would have gone out and shot 65, that might have been good enough,” said Jobe, who has been battling injuries over the past several years, and the $545,600 he earned pushed him over $1.16 million for the season and assured he would keep his card for next year.
Late birdie lifts Lincicome
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Brittany Lincicome made a 4-foot birdie putt on the final hole to win the ShopRite LPGA Classic for her fourth LPGA Tour title and first in two years.
Lincicome’s birdie capped a bogey-free 5-under 66 that gave her a one-shot victory over third- ranked Jiyai Shin and No. 4 Cristie Kerr.
Footnotes.
Bob Gilder (65) made a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 18, then watched Mark Brooks (68) bogey the hole for a one-stroke victory in the Principal Charity Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa.
• Steve Wheatcroft ran away with the Melwood Prince George’s County Open in College Park, Md., finishing a staggering 29-under for a Nationwide Tour- record 12-stroke victory.
• Unheralded Swede Alexander Noren captured his second European Tour title by winning the Wales Open in Newport, shooting a 1-under 70 for a two-stroke victory.
The Associated Press
