If Jon Ram is okay, the Tour Championship won’t be the only tournament on this year’s PGA Tour schedule where the player starts off with a multi-hit advantage. When he returns to the Memorial Championships this week in Dublin, Ohio, the world number two wouldn’t mind a similar staggered start format — with his name coming out on top.
Since 2019, the Tour has used a format in which the FedEx Cup captain receives a one-hit lead over his nearest chaser in the final at East Lake Golf Course in Atlanta. Ram would absolutely love six shots when he plays Thursday at Muirfield Village Golf Club. “The way I’ve played there in the last couple of years has to be at least a six,” Ram said with a wry smile, maybe a little more, just over a week ago after the last round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.
Sounds exaggerated? Well, anyone He remembers what happened to Ram on Anniversary 2021 He knows he’s not pulling those six shots out of thin air – although his lead by this margin vanished so quickly as he exited the eighteenth green after completing his third round in Muirfield Village.
Ram had just finalized a sparkling 64 with an eight-under-64 tied for a pair of championship records: a 54-hole lead and a 54-hole record from an 18-under 198. No sooner had he walked off the field than the tour official told him he had tested positive for COVID -19. According to flight regulations, He had to withdraw from the tournament.
Instead of claiming an almost certain second straight win at the Jack Nicklaus event, Ram was taken to a golf cart and left wearing a mask that didn’t quite mask a look of shock and depression.
The next morning, Niklaus, the tournament founder and host, is still Amazed at what happened. “I wish there was some way to give John three-quarters of the cup,” said the Golden Bear. Patrick Cantlay, who won the FedEx Cup and PGA Tour Player of the Year, I got a win instead. He and Colin Morikawa inherited a third-round lead at 12-under, and Cantlay outscored Morikawa in a playoff.
Ram, 27, eased his disappointment after two weeks She captured the US Open in Tory PinesHis first major title. That doesn’t mean he’s less annoyed at having to give up his efforts at Muirfield Village, a performance that ranks among the top career shows that includes seven PGA Tour wins and six other international titles since turning professional in 2016.
“It’s hard to say it was probably the best I’ve played. I mean, the US Open was really good, right?” Ram said. “But, sure, I played some amazing golf that week in Muirfield Village. The hole looked like a bucket. Basically, I felt like any time I was on the green, that ball would go in, and the ball hitting it was also great. So yeah, it would be It’s hard to top those three days of golf.”
“Everything that happened there, it’s hard to believe,” he said. “So many shots I should probably get them back. Do you think I can get them all back?”
The original Spaniard was smiling cunningly putting forward the idea.
“I don’t blame him for thinking that way,” said Morikawa, who played his first two rounds with Ram and realized how well the world number three played at the time. “What he was doing there was in a big league, with six shots…just great golf. He obviously sucked what happened to him. It had to happen to someone at some point. But Patrick and I, we had to regroup, make Our minds are on some kind of new championship. I don’t think it took anything away from Patrick’s win.”
Morikawa said he texted Ram the following week, between the anniversary and the US Open, telling him he was sorry for what happened and that he hoped for a speedy recovery.
“I was glad he didn’t lose his game,” said Morikawa, the World Open champion, with pleasure, noting Ram’s victory at the US Open. “I think he was kind of in debt.”
Ram thinks he still owes one. Just don’t say he deserves a second memorial victory.
“What can I say? It was the world we lived in at the time.” Fortunately everyone was in good health, and I had no problems, and that is how we should look at it.
“But in my opinion, I’ve already had two victories there,” he added.
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