The Memorial Tournament: Steve Stricker Holds Off Matt Kuchar, Brandt Jobe

It was a tribute -- returning of the favor, if you will.

Edit: There’s photographic proof!

Steve Stricker entered the 2011 Memorial golf tournament’s final round with a cozy advantage on the leaderboard, but needed to shoot 4-under on the day to keep Matt Kuchar and Brandt Jobe from forcing a tie down the stretch. Each of the latter shot 7-under to wind up 15-under for the event, just a stroke shy of the new Muirfield Village champ.

For his troubles, Stricker takes home a $1.1 million share of the $6.2 million Memorial purse.

Steve Stricker holds a three-stroke lead over Brandt Jobe through 12 holes, but a weather delay has forced the field off the course until 7 p.m. ET. Stricker sits at 18-under with Jobe at 15-under. CBSSports.com and PGATour.com will stream coverage of the tournament, while the Golf Channel will pick up coverage when play resumes.

Both Stricker and Jobe have been on fire in the fourth round. Stricker made all six of his birdies on the front nine and has made par on the first three holes of the back nine. Jobe has been equally, if not more, impressive by making five straight birdies as part of seven birdies in eight holes. But he’s made par on his last two holes, waiting to begin again at the 14th.

This year at The Memorial golf tournament, it’s been Steve Stricker and everyone else. And despite a field full of red numbers on Sunday at Muirfield Village, Stricker’s still clear of his competition in the final round.

Stricker is 6-under through 10 holes of his final round, and 18-under for the tournament, after rolling in six front nine birdies to no bogeys. For Stricker, who has produced spectacular play throughout the Memorial — a hole in one during Friday’s second round, a holed-out eagle on the par 4 second hole in the third round on Saturday — the bogey-free stretch leaves him three shots clear of Brandt Jobe entering the back nine.

Steve Stricker’s dominant lead at the 2011 Memorial golf tournament isn’t showing any signs of faltering, as the American is already 2-under through three holes on the day, setting his score at 14-under. Matt Kuchar is keeping pace so far in the final round, however, having shot a pair of early birdies himself and sitting second on the leaderboard at 10-under.

Gary Woodland, Rory McIlroy and three others are bunched up at 9-under, with Hunter Mahan among the cluster at 8-under. Woodland has also started strong, scoring 3-under through seven holes. Jonathan Byrd has given up a bit of ground so far, slipping from second to a third-place tie thanks to Kuchar’s surge.

Steve Stricker fired another low number on Sunday to maintain his three-shot advantage over the field heading into Sunday’s final round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village. Stricker’s ball striking has been superb throughout the tournament, as evidenced by his ace on Friday and hole-out for eagle on Saturday. And though he played the first nine holes at 5-under, including two eagles, Stricker faded down the stretch, playing the back nine at 2-over to get to 12-under for the tournament.

Stricker will play his final 18 holes with Jonathan Byrd on Sunday. Byrd also shot a 69 on Sunday to get to 9-under for the tournament, but he has some work to do to catch Stricker down the stretch.Matt Kuchar and Brandt Jobe are four shots off the pace at 8-under for the tournament. A full leaderboard can be found here.

On Saturday, Steve Stricker hit a pair of eagles, and he needed them both to hold off his increasingly stiff competition. Entering the final round of the Memorial Tournament, Stricker holds a three-stroke advantage on the leaderboard.

Stricker opened his third round by shooting 5-under on the front nine, including those two eagles. He shot a decidedly unspectacular 2-over on the back nine, but it was good enough to carry his lead into Sunday. Stricker, age 44, is looking to win the 10th PGA Tour event of his career.

Steve Stricker, who already sat atop the Memorial Tournament leaderboard entering Saturday, is on fire. Through his first eight holes, he’s already 5-under thanks in part to two eagles. Video of the second eagle hasn’t surfaced yet, but you really need to take a look at the first:

Look at the action on the ball once he hits the green. That doesn’t look real. We’re seeing a whole lot of movement up the leaderboard from the likes of Matt Kuchar, Shaun Micheel, and Mark Wilson in Round 3, but Stricker has kept his foot on the gas ever since his hole in one on Friday (you can see video of that here). If he keeps making this sort of thing happen? Game over.

At Muirfield Village Golf Club, players have started their third rounds of the Memorial Tournament. Most of the golfers at the top of the leaderboard have yet to tee off, but Marc Leishman is among those who already find themselves making great strides.

Through 12 holes, Leishman stands at 5-under. He’s 4-under for the entire tournament; this places him five strokes behind tournament leader Steve Stricker, who is scheduled to tee off at 1:40 p.m. ET. Leishman, age 27, has yet to win a PGA Tour event.

The third round of play at the Memorial Tournament gets started early Saturday morning as the field takes the course at Muirfield Village. Steve Stricker holds a three-shot lead heading into the weekend after rounds of 68 and 67 to get to 9-under for the tournament. A group of four, including Rory McIlroy, are at 6-under for the tournament and in a tie for second place.

The field is pared down for the final two rounds after Friday’s cut left anyone above 1-over on the outside looking in. Phil Mickelson is still in play, though he sits seven shots back at 2-under for the tournament. Luke Donald is lurking, though, and sits four shots off the pace at 5-under for the tournament, tied for sixth place.

Steve Stricker finds himself on top of the Memorial Tournament leaderboard on Friday night. The PGA Tour veteran caught fire on his final nine holes, and even managed to shoot what every golf enthusiast loves to see: a hole in one. Here’s video of Stricker’s ace:

The greatest part about this? Stricker’s body language. He certainly didn’t look like he expected the ball to break toward the flag. That’s exactly what it did, plopping on the green a few feet from the hole. The ball made just the right amount of movement to stop bouncing and roll straight in.

With a number of players in the clubhouse after the morning sessions, four of the players who have already finished their second rounds lead the 2011 Memorial Tournament, tied at the top of the leaderboard at 6-under. Two of those players are Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, the No. 6 golfer in the world and American Ricky Barnes. The other two players tied at 6-under with them are American Jonathan Byrd and Australian Rod Pampling.

Pampling and Byrd have surged up the leaderboard after average first rounds, shooting 66 and 67 respectably in the second. McIlroy shot an even par 72 after his great first round, while it’s been all about consistency for Barnes, who has shot 68 and 70 in his first two rounds.

After the first 18 holes of the 2011 Memorial Tournament, Rory McIlroy finds himself at the top of the leaderboard again in an American event. McIlroy has been working to comeback from his meltdown in The Masters while shaking the bad vibes his rough final 11 holes at Augusta left behind. A 6-under 66 at Muirfield Village was good enough to give him a share of the lead with Chris Riley and puts the young Irishman in a good position heading into Friday’s second round.

The top of the leaderboard is tightly bunched, with Chris DiMarco and Josh Teater just one-shot behind McIlroy and Riley at 5-under for the tournament. Nine others, including Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, Rocco Mediate and Dustin Johnson, are two-shots back at 4-under after the first round.

The Memorial Golf Tournament’s first round is wrapping up, and golfers are making runs at clubhouse leader Chris Riley.

Chris DiMarco and Josh Teater both finished up first round 5-under 67s in the early afternoon, and did so in very different ways. DiMarco played a spotless front nine — his second nine holes, after starting his round on the 10th hole at Muirfield Village — making five birdies and no bogeys, while Teater was tied for the lead at 6-under before a bogey on the eighth hole, his 17th hole of the day, dropped him to 5-under.

Nearly all of the Memorial Golf Tournament’s field has teed off at Muirfield Village. And Chris Riley is now your clubhouse leader.

Riley shot a 6-under 66 in his first round at the Memorial, and holds a one-shot lead on Josh Teater, still on the course, and a two-shot lead on both Steve Stricker and Rickie Fowler, done with their first round 4-under 68s.

The Memorial Golf Tournament tees off Thursday at 7:20 a.m. EST at Dublin’s Muirfield Village Golf Club. Notably absent from the 2011 tournament field are No. 5 David Toms, No. 9 Rory Sabbatini and of course Tiger Woods, who remains on the mend. Woods has won the Memorial four times.

Here are some of the top pairings to keep an eye on:

Justin Rose returns to Muirfield Village on June 5 to defend his 2010 Memorial Golf Tournament victory, but this season has not turned out as well as he likely hoped it would. He currently sits 30th in the FedEx Cup standings after finishing fifth in 2010. He has finished in the top 10 only three times this season, including a tie for third place at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Will he be able to find the form that also led him to a win at the 2010 AT&T National and before he lost his chance at making the European Ryder Cup?

Rose will tee off on Hole 10 with Keegan Bradley and Bubba Watson at 7:53 a.m. ET on Thursday. Bradley, a PGA Tour rookie, enters the tournament on the heels of a victory last Sunday at the 2011 HP Byron Nelson Championship, his first Tour win. Watson has picked up two Tour victories this year, most recently winning the 2011 Zurich Classic in a playoff.