Merritt triumphs at Quicken Loans

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August 3, 2015

Troy Merritt fired a four-under-par 67 to win the Quicken Loans National by three strokes on Sunday.

Troy Merritt fired a four under par 67 to win the Quicken Loans National by three strokes on Sunday, his first PGA Tour title.

Rickie Fowler finished in second following his two under par 69, while Sweden’s David Lingmerth finished third after a closing round of 69.

Tiger Woods recovered from a poor round of 74 on Saturday to fire a fourth-round three under par 68 to finish in a tie for 18th.

Merritt, who topped the leaderboard on 18 under, was unable to match his third-round 61, but continued to impress at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club.

After notching up three birdies on the front nine, Merritt’s lone drop shot of the day came at the 12th when he missed a nine-foot par putt at the 12th. However, he made up for it with a birdie at the 16th before completing his victory in superb style by sinking a 34 foot birdie putt at the 18th.

Fowler, who finished on 15 under par, did not get off to the best of starts, making two birdies and three bogeys on the front nine.

However, he began to find his touch on the back nine – despite starting with a bogey at the 10th – holing a 20-foot birdie putt at the 11th which he followed up with another birdie at the 12th after sinking a 17-foot putt for his birdie-three.

But, the world number eight faltered once again at the 13th, missing a six-foot par putt to register his fifth bogey of the round. Fowler would finish strongly with birdies at the 14th, 16th and 18th, but it was not able to reel in Merritt.

Lingmerth enjoyed a better time of it than Fowler on the front nine, making three birdies and a bogey. However, the Swede stumbled on the closing nine, notching up two birdies and two bogeys to finish on 14 under.

Justin Thomas, Danny Lee, Bill Haas, Justin Rose, Carl Pettersson and Jason Bohn finished in a tie for fourth on 12 under, six strokes off the pace.

After enduring a day to forget on Saturday with a three over par 74, Woods bounced back on Sunday with four birdies on his outward nine, including a holed 42 foot birdie putt at the par three ninth.

Woods made his fifth birdie of the round at the 10th before stumbling with three bogeys on the next four holes. However, he did make another birdie at the 17th to enter the clubhouse on eight-under.