Memorial Tournament: Final-Round Notebook  PGA TOUR Staff DUBLIN, Ohio -- K.J. Choi fired a final-round 65 to win the 32nd Memorial Tournament presented by Morgan Stanley at Muirfield Village Golf Club by one shot over Ryan Moore. His victory gives him a win in each of his past three seasons on the PGA TOUR (2006 Chrysler Championship and 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro).  K.J. Choi's closing 65 tied the Memorial record for low final-round score by a winner. (Mike Ehrmann/WireImage)
• Tiger Woods has earned at least one TOUR victory in each of the past 12 seasons (1996-2007). Other multi-year win streaks belong to Vijay Singh (six in 2002-07), Adam Scott (five in 2003-07), Stuart Appleby (four in 2003-06), David Toms (four in 2003-06) and Phil Mickelson (three 2004-07). • Choi picks up 4,500 FedExCup points for his victory, bringing his season-long total to 9,089 points and in turn moving from 36th to eighth on the inaugural points list. Tiger Woods remains atop the list with 17,104 points, followed by Phil Mickelson with 15,818. • Choi is the second straight Memorial Tournament winner to have won the Chrysler Championship the prior year (Carl Pettersson: 2006 Memorial Tournament champion/2005 Chrysler Championship champion). • Choi's final-round 65 ties the tournament's low final-round score by a winner. Jim Furyk carded a 65 on Sunday to claim his only Memorial Tournament title in 2002. • Choi began the final round five shots behind third-round leader Rod Pampling. His victory is the largest comeback on the 2007 PGA TOUR in a final round. Charley Hoffman was four shots back of the leader entering the final round before winning the Bob Hope Chrylser Classic (90-hole event). • Kenny Perry's final-round 63 is the lowest final round score in the history of the Memorial Tournament. Mark McCumber, Fred Couples, Steve Pate, and Greg Norman held the previous record of 64. • Perry's final 36-holes gave him a total of 130, which is two shots shy of the lowest consecutive 36-hole total in the Memorial Tournament's history. In the 2000 Memorial Tournament, Tiger Woods shot 63-65--128 in rounds two and three to set the previous record. • Ryan Moore's rounds of 66-69-71-66--272 left him in solo second, which is the third runner-up finish of his PGA TOUR career. Moore's other runner-up finishes came at the 2006 Buick Championship and at the 2005 Bell Canadian Open. • This marks the first time Moore has recorded three rounds in the 60s in a single TOUR event since the 2006 John Deere Classic (68-66-69-71--274).
• In Sunday's final round, players were allowed 'preferred lies' in closely mown areas, commonly known as lift, clean and place. It marks the sixth event (of 23) to play at least one round with 'preferred lies.' • The final round was delayed for one hour (8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.) due to severe weather in the area. • Fredrik Jacobson (T5) is back in form after nearly eight months off due to a wrist injury suffered last year. He did not play following the 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship until this year's Verizon Heritage in April, and his best finish in seven starts thus far in 2007 was a T7 at the EDS Byron Nelson Championship. • Woods' final-round 67 left him T15 for the week, his worst finish as the Memorial Tournament since 2002 (T22). This also marks the first time since the 2006 Bay Hill Invitational (T20) and the 2006 PLAYERS Championship (T22) that Woods has finished outside the top-10 in consecutive PGA TOUR events. • The fairways at Muirfield Village Golf Club demand precision off the tee, and this fact was reflected in the Driving Accuracy statistics on the week. 2007 Memorial Tournament champion K.J. Choi (83.93 percent) finished T2 and Kenny Perry, who tied for third (87.50 percent), finished first on the week in Driving Accuracy. • The par-4 17th and the par-4 18th played to averages of 4.171 and 4.260 on the week, ranking second and first, respectively, in terms of difficulty. This is the fourth time in the history of the Memorial Tournament that the two closing holes have registered as the two hardest on the week. • Charles Howell III withdrew prior to the final round due to illness. • His victory Sunday is the fifth in 211 PGA TOUR starts for Choi, at the age of 37 years and 15 days. His other wins came at the 2002 COMPAQ Classic of New Orleans, the 2002 Tampa Bay Classic presented by Buick, the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro and the 2006 Chrysler Championship. • His win comes in his eighth appearance at the tournament (he was fifth in 2004 and T8 in 2005) and brings his tournament earnings to $1,584,788. • The native of South Korea becomes just the sixth international player to win the Memorial Tournament, joining Carl Pettersson (Sweden, 2006), Ernie Els (South Africa, 2004), Vijay Singh (Fiji, 1997), Greg Norman (Australia, 1990, '95) and David Graham (Australia, 1980). • Choi collects $1,080,000 first-place check, the largest of his career, bringing his season earnings on the PGA TOUR to $2,163,629, ranked eighth on the season money list. He surpasses the $2 million mark in season earnings for the fourth time in his career. He becomes the 11th player to surpass $2 million in season earnings in 2007. In his eighth season on PGA TOUR, he surpasses the $13-million mark in career earnings ($13,725,42). • He becomes the sixth international winner in 2007 and the first from South Korea. He joins Vijay Singh (2) Mercedes-Benz Championship and Arnold Palmer Invitational; Henrik Stenson, World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship; Aaron Baddeley, FBR Open; Adam Scott, Shell Houston Open; and Rory Sabbatinin (Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial). • Choi now has the most wins by an Asian-born player on the PGA TOUR. Shigeki Maruyama of Japan has three TOUR titles on his resume. Choi and Maruyama are the only Asian-born players to win multiple events on the TOUR. • Choi now has collected a PGA TOUR victory for the third consecutive season, at the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro, 2006 Chrysler Championship and 2007 the Memorial Tournament. He now has four top-10 finishes for the season, and owns 37 career top-10s and has finished in the top-25 75 times. Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
PGATOUR.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network