The Memorial Recap: Who is David Lingmerth?

David Lingmerth won the Memorial on Sunday, 29 shots in front of Tiger Woods, who was last among those who made the cut.

To Lingmerth winning a PGA Tour event, many people said, "Who?" And to Woods finishing last, many said, "What?"

After the majority of the Jack Nicklaus-hosted tournament focused on the continued decline of Woods, a thrilling fourth round broke out Sunday afternoon. Some eight hours after Woods completed his solo foray around Muirfield Village, thanks to a career-worst 85 in the third round left him in 71st and last place, Lingmerth edged world No. 6 and 2010 Memorial champion Justin Rose on the third hole of sudden death for his first PGA Tour victory.

Lingmerth is certainly known among gamers and golf followers, but his fantasy value was such that he isn't even owned in the RotoWire League (we suspect that will change shortly). At 212th in the world coming in, having made the cut in only half his 18 starts, it's not really a surprise. That's been the norm in the diminutive Swede's brief PGA career: 68 starts, only 35 made cuts. His claims to fame were two runners-up as a rookie in 2013, most notably in The Players Championship won by … Tiger Woods.

What is going on in golf? How does a guy like Lingmerth win such a prestigious tournament at the same time the greatest or second-greatest golfer of all-time shoots the worst round of his career?

The latter, surprisingly, may be easier to answer. For all the times that Woods has pronounced his game on the rise or even tournament-ready, it's really not. Just months ago, he overcame a case of the chipping yips, a career-ender for many, relatively quickly. Who would've thought that Woods could conquer the yips and still get worse? It's clear that through all the coaching changes and swing changes and life changes, Woods is still physically gifted.

While many golf reporters were tweeting about Woods' improved play from Saturday to Sunday, major champion Steve Elkington chimed in on Twitter:

Scribes reporting tiger hitting it good today Every guy playin first off by self hits it good... He's a pro Damage was done under pressure

— Steve Elkington (@elkpga) June 7, 2015

As for the first part of that question, about Lingmerth winning, consider this: there are now 47 events awarding FedEx Cup points on the PGA Tour calendar, meaning at least 40 golfers will win tournaments every year. Forty! The game is so deep now, there are bound to be many surprises, even some flukes, and it's still too soon to know which category Lingmerth falls into. (A prime example of a fluke is Derek Ernst. Since coming out of nowhere to win the Wells Fargo in 2013, Ernst has gone back to nowhere, making only 23-of-59 cuts with one top-25. It's virtually impossible to think he could win another tournament.)

All that said, Lingmerth unquestionably deserved to win the Memorial. He was the best golfer for the week, shooting 15-under 273, including a 3-under 69 on Sunday. He was 51-for-51 inside five feet and he survived two late haymakers from Rose. First, when Lingmerth appeared victorious in regulation, the Englishman forced a playoff with an astounding up-and-down from 55 yards on No. 18. Then on the first sudden-death hole, Rose sank a 20-footer for par, forcing Lingmerth to make from 10 feet to continue. He did. Nothing he had ever done before indicated this was possible. Two holes later, he parred while the world No. 6 bogeyed.

Lingmerth, at 5-foot-7 and 175 pounds, was only 61st in driving distance for the week, at 279.5 yards. But he was 11th in accuracy off the tee, 16th in greens in regulation and third in strokes gained-putting. For the season? He's 65th in accuracy, 120th in GIR and 113th in SG-P.

More often than not, the big names, or the semi-big names, win the big tournaments. But with the game so deep now, we're just going to see more and more little names emerge. And that makes fantasy golf so much harder.

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Justin Rose
If you're a Rose owner, the sting is still strong. But you've got to have a great feeling heading into the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in two weeks. Rose has put his early-season funk in the rear-view mirror, with a win and two runners-up in his last five starts. Of course, he won the Open in 2013 and is now on the short list to do it again.

Jordan Spieth
If you're a Spieth owner, you've got to feel even better about Chambers Bay than Rose owners. Spieth quietly tied for third at the Memorial, his sixth top-3 of the season. With Rory McIlroy shooting 80 in his last start at the Irish Open (Woods never blew up like that so early in his career), Spieth seems to be the one to beat in Washington state.

Marc Leishman
If you're a Leishman owner, no, you don't feel even better than a Spieth owner. But you should still feel pretty dang good. The big Aussie tied for fifth at Muirfield for his top showing of the season. His game seems to be rejuvenated now that his wife's health scare, which led to his withdrawal from the Masters, is over. Leishman will skip next week's event in Memphis before heading to the U.S. Open.

Hideki Matsuyama
The 2014 Memorial champion has done everything but win this season. He tied for fifth with Leishman and Jim Furyk, an eighth top-10 in 16 starts. Matsuyama tied for 10th at the U.S. Open in his debut in 2013 and tied for 35th last year. A victory this year would surprise few golf observers. He's that good.

Jim Furyk
The 2003 U.S. Open winner (and 2002 Memorial champ) turned in another solid week to remarkably climb to No. 3 in the world, his highest standing in almost a decade. Can Furyk, at 45 and with his victory drought now over, win in two weeks outside Tacoma? Sure. But we're still not ready to dismiss his recent history of Sunday collapses, especially in a major.

Dustin Johnson
It seems Johnson can finish top-10 many weeks just by getting out of bed. He's that gifted physically. But after winning earlier this season in his return after a six-month absence, and seemingly showing a new maturity and mental resolve, the old DJ has re-emerged. Johnson tied for 13th at Muirfield Village, his eighth top-25 in 12 starts. He finished six shots short of Lingmerth and Rose – with one double bogey in each of the four rounds, including a backbreaker on No. 8 on Sunday after playing the first seven holes in 3-under. Would it surprise anyone to see Johnson win a low-level event in Memphis this week, become a U.S. Open favorite, then no-show at Chambers Bay?

Jason Dufner
Oh, Duf. After tying for eighth at the Byron Nelson and opening 66-67 at the Memorial, Dufner shot 74-75 to tie for 24th. Surely disappointing for him and his fantasy owners, but that T8 was easily his best showing of the season, so all parties should be encouraged for the remainder of the summer.

Patrick Rodgers
Rodgers experienced a wild Sunday ride while locking up special temporary membership for the rest of the season with a T40 cash. The Stanford product missed a four-footer for par on No. 15, then rinsed his tee ball for a triple on the par-3 16th before holing a 50-footer for birdie on 17. Phew! STM means he's eligible for unlimited sponsor's exemptions and unlimited starts, but he still has to get those exemptions. And Rodgers still has to earn his card for next season. On Monday, he is in sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open in Columbus, Ohio, along with many other Tour pros, including Steve Stricker, Vijay Singh, Lingmerth and Nick Watney, to name just a few.

Phil Mickelson
Far from Woods in a sense that he was nine strokes better, Mickelson was not so far from Tiger in that he finished T65 at Muirfield, blowing up with a 78-75 weekend. Mickelson has shown enough flashes this season to put him in the Chambers Bay conversation, and on a course that demands imagination, he's among the most imaginative still out there. So we give Mickelson a chance at an elusive U.S. Open title. But first he gives it a go this week in Memphis.

Rickie Fowler
Yes, it was one of the most incredible four-hole stretches in recent PGA Tour history, and maybe even not so recent, but Fowler did little before that burst at The Players and nothing since, missing the cut at the Irish Open two weeks ago and again at the Memorial. Cross Fowler off our list of Open contenders.

Jason Day
Playing on what amounts to his home course, Day missed the Memorial cut to continue a vexing season. He did win earlier this year, but missed the cut at The Players with an 81, then withdrew the day before the Nelson citing dizziness. Perennially a U.S. Open favorite, Day can't be considered a top contender this year. He needs rest more than anything, so he won't be in Memphis. (But Glen Day will be there. That's not an endorsement. It's just a stupid pun. Do NOT pick up Glen Day.)