Final Round recap of the 2002 Memorial Tournament

Expect the Unexpected! Jim Furyk, adopted hometown hero and the guy with the unusual swing wins the 2002 Memorial Tournament in dramatic fashion. by Kevin Alcox, Columbus Wired
As was the theme of our coverage all week, expect the unexpected come Sunday. Well, this is exactly what we expected and Muirfield lived up to it and then some. ”Who would of thought…” was the most whispered phrase uttered out by reporters, golfers and fans. The unexpected lead to pondering questions. Who would of thought David Duval would come back and make a serious run at the title? Who would of thought the consecutive steak of 9 straight memorials won by players with majors would come to an end this year?
Who would of thought that Tiger Woods would be twelve strokes behind at the beginning of play on Sunday after three straight Memorial tournament wins? Who would have thought that the top six players on the leader board would be out of contention once they hit the 15th hole? Who would of thought that a player five strokes behind the leader would win the tournament by 2 strokes? Well many would tell you that they predicted many of these occurrences. But to tell the truth no one can tell you what was going to happen on Championship Sunday except that it would be a story that only could be told like in a movie script. Sunday started off normal until the players began to make their rounds. The scoreboard began to tell its story early when David Duval began his round and caught the eye of the leaders still waiting to tee off. Duval started his round 3 under after six holes, including an eagle at the fifth hole, bringing him within 5 shots of the leader. Granted no one was giving it too much attention until he made the turn at 9-under par and proceeded to birdie the first three holes of the back nine taking him to 12-under par and into first place. Even more interesting was the fact that the leaders began to give strokes to the field as Bob Tway bogeyed the first two holes, Stewart Cink was two over after four holes and Justin Leonard played around the even par level before falling to two over on the back nine. Coming down the back nine things began to get a little tenser as players began to close their rounds and were forced to wait to see what would happen behind them. With the last eight groups left on the course 12 players were at 10 under par or better and within two strokes of the leader. Who would step up and take the lead, well again it was an unexpected player. Jim Furyk who turned his whole tournament around on Saturday with hole-in-one on the 4th hole. It was a 190-yard shot on a par 3 that he aced (only the fourth player to ace the whole in tournament history). From that point on he played 4-under under to complete his round at 7-under on Saturday. Then he comes out on Championship Sunday and shoots the low round of the day, a seven under 65 (which no champion had ever shot on Sunday) to take him to 14- under and secure the title as the 2002 Memorial Champion. Nipping at his heels as he walked off the 18th green were two veterans, but at the same time unknowns. John Cook and David Peoples made back nine runs to get to twelve under with two holes too play. Cook was able to put himself in position for a birdie on seventeen but could not get it to drop in. Satisfied with his position as a runner up in a tournament that means so much to the Ohio State native and Muirfield member, he finished his round out with a par and a standing ovation from the supportive fans. “It got pretty fun. It was pretty vocal out there. Which was great. I love this town. I really do,” said Cook. “I love this town, it is a good sports town and I was real proud out there.” Peoples followed suit staying strong over the last few holes playing par golf knowing that the eagle at 15 for Furyk was too much to overcome on Championship Sunday. With so many golfers in position to make a move, it ended up being a miraculous shot out of the sand to secure the tournament for Furyk. Expect the unexpected! Four days of golf, 105 golfers, 2,400 volunteers, thousands of fans, and one Champion – Jim Furyk. The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club has once again proven itself to be the top non-major on Tour.