Where to begin? It was a rollercoaster of a Sunday, with a tightly packed leaderboard of big-name contenders — including Masters champions Bubba Watson and Adam Scott — that shined before crashing and falling out of the mix as they came down the stretch. In the end, it was the 22-year-old star from Japan, Hideki Matsuyama, who upstaged everyone and beat Kevin Na in the first extra hole in the sudden death playoff.
Mickelson proclaiming his innocence to insider trading allegations
News broke late Friday that the federal authorities, the FBI and SEC, are looking into Phil Mickelson, along with investor Carl Icahn and gambler William “Billy” Walters, for a string of well-timed trades made in 2011.
Mickelson, who shot an even-par 72 in the third round of The Memorial, was greeted by a large group of reporters after he finished signing his scorecard. When he turned the corner from the scoring room and walked toward the podium, he reacted with a big, goofy smile and said, “Awesome!” Laughter ensued.
Phil Mickelson is being investigated, along with investor Carl Icahn and Las Vegas bettor William “Billy” Walters, for insider trading by the federal authorities, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal:
Bewitch me!
We couldn’t help but notice (along with the rest of the buzzing golf media at Memorial) that Caroline Wozniacki altered her avatar picture on her Twitter account to one of her in a witch costume stirring “potion” in a cauldron.
It was a tale of two rounds — or two nines — for Rory McIlroy. Following his spectacular nine-under 63 in the first round, McIlroy, who started on no. 10 Friday, quickly dropped out of the lead after struggling on his first nine, which included three consecutive double-bogeys. He posted seven-over 43 on the back nine.
Despite his rally on the front, he still shot 15 strokes worse than the previous day, with a six-over 78 in the second round of The Memorial.
Less than a week after his impressive come-from-behind victory at the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy continued to carry the momentum into the first round of The Memorial, firing a scorching nine-under 63 to take a three-shot lead over Paul Casey, Chris Kirk and Bubba Watson.
McIlroy nearly tied the course record (11-under 61) at Muirfield Village had it not been for a mistake on the 14th — with a wedge in his hand, no less, which led to a somewhat costly double-bogey. However, he bounced back with his second eagle on the back nine, rolling in a 15-footer on the par-5 15th to erase his error on the previous hole.
Keegan Bradley stuck a conventional-length putter in his bag during the first round of The Memorial Tournament and it went pretty well — he shot a five-under 67 at Muirfield Village, which currently puts him on the first page of the early leaderboard.
Turns out it was Bradley’s mother, Kaye, who encouraged her son to use the short putter.
He’s back
Jason Day is healthy after a long recovery from a thumb injury that has kept him from competition since The Masters, “The thumb, it’s totally fine. At the start of the injury, I thought it would be a two, three‑week [break] and it will be fine. But it just gradually got worse and worse.” It was an unfortunate situation for Day because he won the WGC-Accenture Match Play in February, but could only manage one more start at The Masters. He will have an opportunity for a storybook comeback in front of the hometown crowd at The Memorial.
One more to go
Phil Mickelson does not shy away from talking about how much he wants to win the career grand slam. At the Memorial Tournament, he said, “I would look at myself, I would look at my career, which is all I care about, in a whole different light if I were able to get that fourth one.” Those are strong words from a player who has 42 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including 5 major championships.
Cool and confident
Adam Scott is back in action after solidifying his world no. 1 ranking with a win at Colonial last week. He continues to say it is a “week-by-week” process to stay number one, but he must feel extremely confident about his game for the Memorial and the U.S. Open in a couple weeks.
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