We get tournaments like these once every year or two years. The wacky "wait, what exactly happened there" ending to a big-time event. A few years back, it was Derek Ernst beating David Lynn in a playoff at Quail Hollow by holding off Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and others. That was a soggy weekend and a perplexing outcome.
This weekend's outcome was less perplexing but no less disjointed. William McGirt and Jon Curran (both of whom have been playing strong golf) held off the likes of Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar to duke it out in a two-hole playoff which McGirt won with an up-and-down par on the 18th at Muirfield Village. The final hole will get all the attention (as it should), but it was actually a bunker save on the first playoff hole that was McGirt's best shot in overtime.
This was McGirt's first PGA Tour win, which has become a theme at this tournament. He joins David Lingmerth (2015), Hideki Matsuyama (2014) and Justin Rose (2010) as players who have gotten their first wins at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event.
"I've been in this position several times before," McGirt told Peter Kostis of CBS. "I said to myself, 'Hopefully, I learned something.'" It was clear he did. McGirt shot a bogey-free 71 to squeeze into the playoff with a hard-charging Curran.
"It feels awesome," McGirt told Sky Sports after holing a six-foot par putt for the win on playoff hole No. 2. "It was a struggle all day. I fought my golf swing all day. It's unbelievable. To get your first win is pretty special. To have it at Jack's place makes it even more unbelievable."
The most fascinating part of McGirt's win might be how it happened -- with a packed leaderboard full of superstars late on a Sunday. Why is that fascinating for McGirt? He once had a conversation with Tiger Woods, who told him that he was an idiot for not looking at leaderboards.
McGirt took the advice to heart.
"I looked at it all day," McGirt told CBS. "Every single one I passed, I looked at."
And on the very last one, he'll see his name at the very top. Grade: A+
Rory McIlroy: We talked about it more in-depth here, but the Rory backdoor top 10 is among the most assured events in all of sports. He pulled it off again this week at Memorial despite making three bogeys on par 5s this week which for him is a borderline felony.
The strangest part about all of this is that he finished outside the top 60 (!) in strokes gained on approach shots. If that's even average, he runs away with the golf tournament. Grade: B+
Jordan Spieth: Spieth's worst finish up to this point at a tournament where he made the cut this year was a T21 at Pebble Beach. He finished T57 at the Memorial with a poor weekend of 74-73. No momentum going to Oakmont after that showing, but he should still probably be the favorite. Spieth was bad in pretty much every area of his game but particularly egregious off the tee and on approaches to the green. He ranked outside the top 50 in each of those categories in strokes gained. Grade: C-
Jason Day: At multiple points on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I thought Day was going to win this tournament. Of course, I also think Day is going to win every tournament he plays because he's won seven of the last 18 he's played. He just didn't have the goods this week, though. He shot a 71 on Friday but said it could have been an 80 and backed that up with something closer to 80 on Sunday with a 74. Still tied his all-time best finish here of T27. Grade: B-
Dustin Johnson: Johnson is quietly playing some really great golf. He finished third alone (one shot out of the playoff) and vaporized drives all week including one that flew 383 yards on the 71st hole of the tournament. (That's not a typo!) He'll be a big story coming into the U.S. Open. He would have been anyway, but with the hot hand and abomination at last year's national open, Johnson will be tough to ignore at Oakmont. Grade: A
Rickie Fowler: Fowler missed the cut by two strokes on Friday after a poor showing on Thursday. That's three missed cuts in his last five events (including the Masters and Players Championship). He also sprinkled in a T4 at Quail Hollow. Reason for concern? Fowler doesn't think so.
"The game actually feels really good," said Fowler. "I played well when I was off at home ... I'm looking forward to getting some good work in at home. Like I said, the swing felt really good today. Just tightened things up and definitely need to get the flat stick happy and ready to go."
I'm not concerned, but I'm not all that thrilled either. He should still be one of the 10 favorites at Oakmont. Grade: F