2015 Quicken Loans National results: Troy Merritt runs away with Tiger Woods’ event

Troy Merritt’s life changed on Sunday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, where the 29-year-old captured his first PGA Tour win and ran away with the Quicken Loans National. Merritt, who turned pro in 2008, was making his 96th career start and had $2,931,086 in career earnings. Sunday’s three-shot win in the DC area will earn him more than $1.2 million, an invite to the Masters and a set of other Tour perks and exemptions. For a guy who has never played a major championship, this was a life and career-changing weekend.

Merritt was completely off the radar at the midpoint of Tiger’s’ tournament, but he rocketed up the leaderboard on Saturday with a 10-under 61, setting a new event and course record. Much more familiar and accomplished names, such as Rickie Fowler, Justin Rose and Bill Haas, circled around him, but Merritt’s 10-under round was good enough to stay on the co-lead and earn a spot in the Sunday final pairing.

Merritt said on Saturday that he had been sticking his approach shots close in the first two rounds, but that he just kept missing 10- to 12-foot putts so he could not put a score together. Those all obviously went in during that record-setting third round. On Sunday, he backed up that low number with a 4-under 67, and there were no nerves exposed down the stretch -- he nearly aced the short par-3 16th.

Given his lack of experience in these big spots, and with Fowler just a group ahead trying to put the pressure on, you would think Merritt might relent and fade on Sunday. But he never opened the door and actually extended his lead down the stretch. Fowler sputtered at the start of his round, one that included five bogeys, but five birdies in his last eight holes were still not enough to get close to Merritt.

Only a double-bogey implosion by Merritt at the 18th would have brought Fowler back into it, but instead he just went ahead and rolled in a bomb to finish with another red number.

And Rickie was one of the first people to greet the first-time winner as he walked off the course.

The Tour now hits a huge two-week stretch on its schedule. The lucrative and loaded WGC Bridgestone Invitational is up next and will have 48 of the top 50 in the world in attendance. After that comes the season’s final major, the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. So all the top players will be back on Tour for this mid-August stretch.

Here are the final results from Northern Virginia: