DUBLIN, Ohio — Aaron Wise knew he needed a miracle, and for a moment, he thought he got it.
Wise trailed leader Billy Horschel by three shots heading to the 15th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club. The 546-yard, par-5 is the easiest hole on the course, with almost as many birdies (27) as pars (31) on Sunday.
Wise needed more than a birdie to put pressure on Horschel, but that looked unlikely after he put his tee shot in the sand and then had to chip out into the fairway, 101 yards from the cup. Meanwhile, Horschel hit on the green in two shots. Already slim odds of a comeback looked doomed.
But then Wise hit what looked like a perfect approach shot.
Maybe, just maybe…
“The way the crowd was reacting, I knew it was tracking right for the hole,” Wise said. “It was just a matter if it quite made it far enough down the hill or not. When they got loud, I thought it was going in.”
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But it stopped less than two feet from the cup for a possible eagle. Horschel then hit the shot of the final round, draining a 53-foot putt for his eagle and a four-shot lead.
“The last four or five feet, you could tell it took a turn right for the cup,” Wise said. “It looked like it was perfect speed the whole time. That’s one of those things you do when you win a tournament.
“It was a great back and forth. I felt like I had a chance all the way up until about then.”
Wise tapped in for birdie but couldn’t get closer than three shots the rest of the way. He finished four back at 9 under after a meaningless bogey on No. 18 to complete his 1-under 71 on Sunday.
“I thought I put a really good round together,” Wise said. “It just wasn’t quite enough today.”
Wise knew he had an uphill battle from the start Sunday. He started five shots behind Horschel, who went 49 holes without making a bogey.
“We were playing a tough course,” Wise said. “I went out with the attitude I’m just going to do me and maybe hopefully Billy comes back to me. You can’t press out there too much because you can barely hold some of the greens, never mind attack some of the pins.”
Wise birdied the 10th and 11th holes to get within two shots before bogeying No. 13. No. 15 was his last chance to put pressure on Horschel.
Still, it was a superb week for the 25-year-old, who was born in South Africa and now lives in Florida. Wise has one PGA Tour win, which came in 2018 at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Two years earlier, he became the first player since 2008 to win both the NCAA men’s individual and team titles for the University of Oregon.
Wise earned $1,308,000 for finishing second at the Memorial.
“It means a ton,” he said. “This is a tournament you’ve watched on TV since you were a little kid.”
As a member of the final pairing, he got a handshake from tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus coming off the final hole.
“Walking off 18, shaking Jack’s hand there, that’s something you watch everyone do in the final group,” he said. “And I got a chance to do it.
“I didn’t get the handshake, but I did shake his hand.”
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