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Patrick Cantlay drained a 12-foot par putt to beat Collin Morikawa in a playoff and win The Memorial Tournament on Sunday afternoon in Ohio. 

Just one day earlier, Jon Rahm was forced to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive for Covid. 

He had a six shot lead. 

“It was such a weird situation, so unfortunate. Everyone, me included, knows it would be totally different today if that hadn’t happened. But there’s nothing I could do about it. I tried as hard as I could to reset and refocus,” said Cantlay in his press conference afterward. 

The win is the fourth of Cantlay’s career, and his second this season.

Cantlay and Morikawa both finished at 13-under for the tournament. Rahm was at 18-under after the third round.

“It is a very unfortunate situation and not anything I would wish on anybody. He played so great for the first three rounds. So there’s a little something that I can’t quite put my finger on that make it’s feel a little different but I really hit a lot of clutch solid shots today and so I think I’ll remember that mostly,” Cantlay added.

Cantlay Wins in Playoff

Cantlay and Morikawa were tied going into the 18th hole. 

Morikawa was already in for par when Cantlay just missed a birdie putt to win in regulation.

In the playoff, Morikawa’s approach came up well short of the green, but he chipped to six feet.

Morikawa appeared to have a small spot of mud on the ball, that may have caused that. However, after the round he was not making any excuses.

“No, it wasn’t a mud ball. It was a very poorly executed swing. It happens. Bad swings are going to happen. Not the timing I needed to, it just needed to be a stock 6-iron, land it just short of pin high and bounce it up there,” said Morikawa.

Cantlay’s shot from the bunker landed 12 feet by the hole and he rolled it in for par.

Morikawa missed his putt to give Cantlay the win.