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Patrick Cantlay has admitted that his fourth PGA Tour victory felt different to the others following the withdrawal of Jon Rahm on Saturday.

At the conclusion of his third round on Saturday, Jon Rahm led the field by six strokes, before the Spaniard was forced to withdraw due to a positive COVID-19 test.

With the leader forced out of the tournament, that opened the door for Patrick Cantlay and Collin Morikawa who discovered in bizarre fashion that they shared the 54-hole-lead on Saturday night.

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The American duo traded blows over the course of the day, both shooting 71, before world No.15 Cantlay claimed his second title at Memorial on the first playoff hole as Morikawa missed an eight-foot putt.

“I’ll definitely remember it slightly different,” said Californian Cantlay of his win. “It’s such a weird situation and very unfortunate. Rahm played so amazing the first three rounds that the way I felt Sunday morning was obviously a lot different than I felt on, walking off the 18th green on Saturday.”

“There’s nothing I can do except reset and just take the new paradigm and run with it. I thought I did a good job of staying focused and it really felt like a battle between Collin and I all day and that’s just kind of how it played out.

“There’s maybe a little hint of something I can’t quite put my finger on, but I mean, the emotions I feel out there and the focus that it took today was just as any other tournament.”

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Despite the win at Muirfield Village being Cantlay’s second title of the PGA Tour season, he had come into the tournament off the back of four missed cuts in six starts and he had not recorded a top-10 finish since February.

“I always feel like I badly need a win and a win will make things just a little bit better,” added Cantlay. “The last few months have not been the best golf I’ve played and the interesting thing is when I think about it, I always felt maybe a little closer than the result.

“I was able to pick those shots up and make the cut on the number or one inside and then a lot of times I’ll play a great round on Saturday or Sunday and kind of vault myself up the leaderboard.”

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