Li's final charge not quite enough

China's Li Haotong will need to wait another week to try to earn special temporary membership on the PGA Tour.

Needing to finish no lower than 22nd place at the Memorial Tournament, the 23-year-old settled for a share of 37th place at Muirfield Village on Sunday following a closing 1-under 71.

Li finished 17 strokes behind winner Patrick Cantlay of the United States, who produced a sensational final round of 64 to beat Austral ia's Adam Scott by two strokes in the prestigious tournament hosted by legend Jack Nicklaus.

Tiger Woods, a five-time Memorial champion, tied Jay Haas for most top-10 finishes at the event when he finished tied for 9 after producing his lowest round of the week with a 67.

Li started his final round on a strong note, making birdie putts from inside of 10 feet on the first and fourth holes. Another birdie on seven from less than five feet saw him make the turn in 33 and trending upwards on the leaderboard. But he dropped three bogeys against one birdie coming home.

Li's commendable finish on a week where he enjoyed meeting Nicklaus during a practice round saw him increase his FedEx Cup points tally to 243.

He needs to hit 266 points to gain special temporary membership, which would allow him to receive an unrestricted number of invitations as he then attempts to match or surpass the 125th-ranked golfer on the FedEx Cup points list at the end of the season to earn his PGA Tour card.

After the tournament, Li thanked Nicklaus on social media, writing: "Thank you Mr Jack Nicklaus for the invite this week. It's always a pleasure to play in the @memorialgolf and to support #playyellow campaign. Grinded hard out there this week. Feeling good about where my game is. On to the next one!"

Li will take a break this week before returning to action at the US Open at Pebble Beach next week.

China Daily