David Lingmerth Wins the 2015 Memorial

Once again a playoff was needed to decide the winner of The Memorial at Muirfield Village. This time around, it was between rookie David Lingmerth and veteran Justin Rose. Both had finished the tournament at 15-under par. Rose was leading going into the final round but shot a 72, whereas Lingmerth capitalized with a round of 69. The playoff lasted three holes (where the 18th was played twice, then the 10th hole). Lingmerth eventually emerged as the winner, winning with a par on the 10th after some errantness by Rose.

This is the Swedish golfer's first professional on the PGA Tour. The win catapults him into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup Rankings and takes him from 212th to 71st in the World Golf Rankings. This is also the first time in quite a bit where the leader going into the weekend was ended up winning the tournament.

Lingmerth and Rose finished two shots ahead of Francesco Molinari and Jordan Spieth. Molinari was actually tied for the lead until he hit his tee shot into the water on the par 3 16th hole. He ended up shooting a 71 that day. This is the Italian's third top 5 finish in his last four consecutive starts. You have to think that sooner or later he's going to win again. Spieth on the other hand shot a 65 in a round that included six birdies and an eagle. Canadian Graham DeLaet also finished decently at T26.

In other news, Tiger Woods had a disastrous weekend and ended up finishing in 71st (last) place. It started on Saturday when he shot his worst professional round in his career, an 85. He then followed that up with a 74 today, which is an improvement, but not the one Tiger was hoping for. Tiger's probably had more dropped shots this week than any other week of his professional career and seems to be in a little rough patch at the moment.

To end off, here's how our picks finished the tournament:

1) Bill Hass: T18 at 7-under
2) Chris Kirk: T36 at 3-under
3) Kevin Na: T13 at 9-under

Great finishes by Haas and Na. A top 20 finish in a tournament filled with this many quality players is always a good thing.

Next week, we'll be covering the FedEx St. Jude Classic at TPC Southwind in Memphis, Tennessee and after that the season's second major, the US Open. Stay tuned for our coverage on those events.


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

Sweden's David Lingmerth Wins the 2015 Memorial

2015 Memorial Weekend Update

Sorry for the slight delay in the post, but here's the Weekend Update of The Memorial. Swedish golfer David Lingmerth leads the field at Muirfield Village with a score of 12-under and a one shot lead over Ohio native Jason Dufner. The cut has also been set at 1-under.

Lingmerth fired off rounds of 67 and 65 to take the top spot at The Memorial and has only made 2 bogeys in his first two rounds, none of which came yesterday. Dufner on the other hand took a more unorthodox approach in his rounds, especially his back nine (the course's front nine) yesterday. It included a double bogey, an eagle (one of three that round), and a hole-in-one (which probably resulted in the most nonchalant reactions to an ace, given Dufner's personality). Muifield Village has also been playing great all week and the low round yesterday was a 64 shot by Andy Sullivan (T3).

For Tiger Woods, this marks another week where he's just barely made the cut. He sits at 1-under and only made the cut after holing a key putt on his final hole of his second round. He's been playing up and down all week, but especially bad on his back nines which he's played over par in both rounds.

For long time PGA Tour player Kenny Perry, this week at Muirfield Village is even more special as he is officially retiring from the PGA Tour. Perry chose The Memorial as his retirement tournament for good reason. He has 14 victories on tour, three of which were The Memorial. His first win came back in 1991, incidentally at The Memorial too. Throughout his career, he's also had a few close encounters with major wins, the most famous probably being the 2009 Masters where he lost in a playoff to Angel Cabrera. Kerry has also had a successful Champions Tour Career, where he will likely continue playing. Perry missed the cut this week by just one shot.

Finally, here's how our picks are doing:

1) Bill Hass: T45 at 3-under
2) Chris Kirk: T33 at 4-under
3) Kevin Na: T53 at 2-under

Not bad, but we'll see how the weekend rounds go. Stay tuned for our Results post coming Sunday evening!


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

David Lingmerth is on track for his first PGA Tour Win

2015 Memorial Tournament Picks

This week, the PGA Tour stops off at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio for Jack Nicklaus' own Memorial Tournament. This tournament, like the Arnold Palmer Invitational, is only one of five tournaments on tour with "invitational" status. This means that it's a restricted event, in this case guaranteeing invites to the top-75 players on last year's money list. While it doesn't give out the biggest monetary prize, it's winner receives a three year exemption on the PGA Tour.

Murfield Village Golf Club is a course also designed by Jack Nicklaus which opened in 1976. Over the years it has been host to some of golf's most coveted events, such as the Ryder Cup in 1987, the Solheim Cup in 1998, and more recently, the Presidents Cup in 2013. In a tournament setting, it usually plays to just under 7,400 yards, with the shortest par 3 playing to 184 yards.

The field is once again dense with talent and great golfers. After all, you have to be playing good golf (as of last year) just to get invited to the tournament. With that in mind, here are our picks for this week:

1) Bill Hass
2) Chris Kirk
3) Kevin Na

Bill Haas has had great finishes at Muirfield Village in the past and also finished T4 at this year's Players Championship. Kirk is playing hot golf at the moment with three T20's in just his last three starts. He also finished T4 here last year. Speaking of good golf at the moment, Kevin Na rounds out our picks. He nearly won this event last year, but lost in a playoff to Hideki Matsuyama.

Tiger Woods will also be in the field this week, so naturally the entire golf world (and most of the media coverage probably) will be focused on him.

Play kicks off early tomorrow morning but stay tuned Friday for our Weekend Update post to see who's leading going into the weekend.


-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

 Given his play so far this year, Kevin Na may win his second PGA Tour event this week

Photo: Lm Otera/Associated Press

2014 Tour Championship and 2014 FedEx Cup Champion Picks - Weekend Update

We just halfway through the 2014 Tour Championship and very close to crowning a new FedEx Cup Champion, with just two rounds left today and Sunday. As it stands now, the leader going into the weekend is Billy Horshel at 8-under. Billy shot a pair 66's at East Lake Country Club in Atlanta, Georgia, which was good enough for a two shot lead over Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, and Chris Kirk.

Two shots may seem like a big lead, but you have to remember all the pressure the players are on. They're playing for a potential $11 million. It's probably not helping Billy's case that he's being trailed by Rory and Jason Day. Billy had been playing well for the past two weeks however and it might be this factor that gives him the win this week.

A win here this week for Rory would be the best way to end off his 2014 season and cement his spot atop the World Golf Rankings. On the other hand, a win for Jason Day would make up for the many T5 and higher finishes he's had all year (including a WGC win).

Also, here is how our picks are doing so far:

1) Rickie Fowler: 9 at 3-under (-3)
2) Jim Furyk: T5 at 4-under (-4)
3) Bubba Watson: T14 at even par (E)

Bubba's going to have to do some serious work to win it this week. Rickie and Furyk are in good spots too going into the weekend.

With two days left, anything is still possible and nothing is by no means written in stone. It'll be an exciting couple of days so stay tuned for out post to see who won,

-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

The stakes are high going into the final two rounds of the 2014 Tour Championship

2014 Deutsche Bank Championship Picks - Results

The final round of the 2014 Deutsche Bank Championship at the Tournament Players Club of Boston in Norton, Massachusetts has just finished and the winner this year is Chris Kirk, who won the tournament by two shots over Geoff Ogilvy, Russel Henley, and Billy Horschel. His final two rounds consisted of a 64 and a 66, which were good enough to make him win the tournament at 15-under (-15). This is Kirk's third PGA tour win and his first since 2013 (The McGladrey Classic).

With this playoff win, Kirk now leads the FedEx Cup Rankings (ousting Hunter Mahan from the top spot), having started ranked 17th earlier this week. Geoff Ogilvy and Billy Horschel have also played themselves into the BMW Championship next week, which features the top-70 in the FedEx Cup rankings as of the end of this tournament. Ogilvy moved from 100th (just making it into this week's event) to 24th, and Horschel from 82nd to 20th.

I think the FedEx Cup playoffs is a true test of a golfers skill and ability to work under pressure and its cases like those of Geoff Ogilvy and Billy Horschel that prove it. Both of these players had to have a good week in order to make it to the next level of the playoffs and the way they played this week showed that they were able to handle this pressure. These situations also and excitement and sometimes nervousness to spectators of the sport, given the fact that just a few extra shots here and there could determine so much. The stakes are very high during the playoffs.

Finally here is how our picks finished this week:

1) Rickie Fowler: T23 at 7-under (-7)
2) Keegen Bradley: T16 at 8-under (-8)
3) Phil Mickelson: T45 at 2-under (-2)

Good play from all the picks this week. All of them will also be playing in next weeks BMW Championship too,

Stay tuned for our coverage of the BMW Championship later on this week,

-Nick
Toronto Golf Reviews

Chris Kirk Wins the 2014 Deutsche Bank Championship (Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)