Rickie Fowler Finishes in Second Place in the Memorial Tournament

He was oh-so-close.

Rickie Fowler came into the final round of the Memorial Tournament five strokes behind leader Daniel Summerhays.

Fowler had a bogey-free front nine, and was leading the tournament by one stroke heading into the final nine holes.

ESPN

Jack Nickalaus’ course was not kind to him on the tough back nine. The weather decided to be problematic as well, with two delays totaling over two and a half hours of waiting on the back nine. Fowler had one birdie and two bogeys on holes 10-18, including one on the final hole.

Fowler had a great week overall, and never finished a round over par. His best round was the second round, where he shot a six-under 66, which was the second best on the day.

Memorial winner Jason Dufner jumped out to a great start, carding back-to-back 65s on Thursday and Friday to lead the field at -14. He then shot a five-over 77 in the third round to fall back to -9 and end up paired with Fowler on the final day.

As seems to be the case with Rickie as of late, he just seems to collapse at the end. Trailing by two strokes on the final hole, it would appear that he would get a chance to come back with the impossible, as he smoked his 3-wood 350 yards down the middle of the fairway on the 18th hole, while Dufner shot his into the deep rough. However, Dufner ended up with a par on the hole, while Rickie couldn’t find the bottom of the cup and ended with his bogey.

With two groups behind Fowler’s duo, Fowler was forced to wait and see if he would slip down the leaderboard any more. He didn’t, but Anirban Lahiri charged 25 spots up the leaderboard to finish tied for second. Justin Thomas and Matt Kuchar finished four strokes back from Dufner at -9 to round out the Top 5.

Four other former Cowboys competed in the Memorial this weekend. Morgan Hoffmann, Hunter Mahan and Kevin Tway all failed to make the cut to get to the weekend. Peter Uihlien did make the cut, and finished as one of the six players T25 at -2 on the weekend. In his four rounds, he had a 76 69 68 and 73 for a four-round total of 286.

Up next for Fowler is the St. Jude Classic June 8-11. Following that is the U.S. Open from June 15-18. Two good weeks of golf are in our future, and we should be in for a fun time.