Bryant’s Perseverance Pays Off

Bart Bryant spent 20 years trying to prove he belonged among the best and wondering whether three surgeries and too many trips to Q-school were signs he was wasting his time.

Validation came Sunday at the Memorial. Bryant somehow salvaged par from inside a hazard on the edge of the creek on the 18th hole, held off crowd favorite Fred Couples by one shot and had an audience with Jack Nicklaus, the tournament host who was duly impressed with what he saw at Muirfield Village.

“To win against a quality field like this ... to walk off the 18th green and have Mr. Nicklaus waiting to shake your hand and congratulate you is beyond comprehension at this point,” said Bryant, whose four-under-par 68 gave him a 16-under 272 total and $990,000 in winnings.

Tiger Woods also had a final-round 68 with eight birdies, but he was slowed by a double bogey on the eighth hole and wound up four shots back, tied for third with Bo Van Pelt and Jeff Sluman. Woods needed to finish alone in third to replace Vijay Singh at No. 1 in the rankings.

Couples, who had a final-round 69, had a chance to take a two-stroke lead on the 15th but missed a four-foot eagle putt. After tapping in for birdie, he bogeyed the 16th to fall into a tie with Bryant.

The 42-year-old Bryant was never rattled by raucous cheers behind him for Couples. Bryant stole the lead, not to mention the show, with an approach to five feet for birdie on the 17th. The drama built at the 18th, when his three-wood took a hard bounce and stopped inches from the water.

Playing it safe, Bryant took a penalty drop and lashed a six-iron to 15 feet, then holed the par putt. He sat nervously in the scoring trailer waiting to see whether his score would stand, and Couples’ last chance ended with an approach that sailed over the green into deep rough.

“Bart deserved to win,” Couples said. “I can’t really kick myself too hard.... There are a lot of things I did to save shots too. But overall, I just needed one more putt.”

The victory got Bryant out of his Tuesday appointment for a 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier. He earned an exemption by winning twice on the PGA Tour since last May, with the Memorial the cutoff for that category. It will be his first U.S. Open since 1994, and only his third major.