A wild Memorial Tournament got a lot crazier on Saturday evening as tournament leader — and heavy favorite — Jon Rahm had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19. Rahm led by six strokes over Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa, who are the new co-leaders at 12 under entering Sunday.
Rahm’s day on Saturday was insane. He made an ace early on as he finished up his second round and then fired an outrageous 64 that could have gone down as one of the great rounds of the PGA Tour season. Now, though, he’s no longer in the tournament as he immediately withdrew following a day in which he gained nine strokes on one of the best fields of the year.
Instead, Morikawa and Cantlay will duke it out on a course where they have both won professional events before. So let’s take a look at what they have in front of them on what will be a crazy Sunday at Muirfield Village.
T1. Collin Morikawa (-12): He shot the second-best round of the day on Saturday in Round 3, which was going to go down as an unfortunate time to find his putting stroke if not for the Rahm WD. Now he has a real chance to win for the fifth time in his first 50 starts on the PGA Tour with the majority of them coming at big-time courses and events.
Morikawa is now first in the field from tee to green this week, which is not unusual for him. The difference is that he’s gaining strokes with his putters, and has two 66s to show for it as a result. If he does that again on Sunday, he’ll once again raise a trophy over another elite American player on the 18th green at Muirfield Village.
T1. Patrick Cantlay (-12): A birdie at his last hole on Saturday seemed pretty inconsequential until about five minutes later when his playing partner withdrew. Cantlay destroys at this course, but his week — like Morikawa’s — was going to go down as poor timing against one of the greats in the game. Now he can take advantage of even poorer timing on Rahm’s part.
Cantlay’s 68 was five strokes better than the field average, and he’s in the top 10 in strokes gained in every category through three rounds. With most of the firepower toward the end of this tournament consolidated in this twosome, it should make for some terrific golf down the stretch.
