By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenny Perry holds up the trophy after winning the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio Sunday. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

DUBLIN, Ohio - Long before Tiger Woods made his signature right-elbow jab after sinking an eagle putt on No. 15 to go to 7-under par for the day, he knew that Kenny Perry was going to win the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

"When Kenny got it to 17 under (after the first nine holes), I had no chance," said Woods, who shot a 65 Sunday. "I was 8 (strokes) back with three holes to go."

Woods finished four strokes back.

"I had one bad stretch of holes (on the front nine Saturday) that kept me from having a chance to win the golf tournament," said Woods, who shot a third-round 76.

His 65 tied reigning Masters champion Mike Weir for low round of the day, but Perry assembled the best four rounds (65-68-70-72, 275) to win his second Memorial by two strokes over Lee Janzen.

It was Perry's second straight win. He survived the Annika Sorenstam media crush last week to win at Colonial.

"The tank was empty coming in," said Perry, who is a drag-racer in his leisure time. "I needed something to refuel me. I had never been under this much strain for two weeks. I think I just mentally got tired."

He bogeyed five of the last six holes. But Janzen never got closer to Perry than the two-stroke deficit at which he began the round.

"(Perry) went out and played ideal through the front nine (32) for a guy who had a couple-shots lead on one guy and left the rest of the field behind, basically," Janzen said.

Perry birdied Nos. 2, 5, 7 and 9 to build his lead to five.

The last time it looked like it might turn into a match was the eighth hole. Janzen had birdied to cut the deficit to three, and Perry was staring at a seven-footer for par.

"Maybe (a bogey there by Perry) and another good shot on nine would have done it," Janzen said.

But Perry made the putt and then lasered his approach to No. 9 to a foot.

Even when Perry began to tire on the back nine, Janzen couldn't gain ground. He birdied No. 15, but so did Perry.

"No. 15 is what did it for me," Perry said. "I kept a four-stroke cushion. I just kept having that cushion, which was nice."

Not even Janzen's holing out of three straight bunker shots on the front nine - the first time Janzen had done that anywhere on a golf course - could rattle Perry.

"It's easy to look back and see what could have been (on the back nine)," Janzen said, "(but) it never looked like (through the first 12 holes) that he would make any mistakes. He made a great up-and-down on 12, and those are the things that you see Tiger do, time after time he always saves the round by making a crucial putt."

Perry said his putter began feeling heavy about the 13th hole; fatigue was clearly setting in.

"I had a lot going through my head," Perry said.

Perry became the sixth multi-winner at Muirfield Village, joining Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Tom Watson, Greg Norman and Woods (a three-time winner).

Three of those guys (Nicklaus, Norman and Watson) were over 40 when they won the tournament, so Perry (42) joins that list, too.

Memorial Scores

Sunday

At Muirfield Village Golf Club

Purse: $5 million

Yardage: 7,265; Par: 72

Final

Kenny Perry, $900,000	65-68-70-72-275
Lee Janzen, $540,000	67-67-71-72-277
Mike Weir, $340,000	72-70-71-65-278
Tiger Woods, $220,000	67-71-76-65-279
Vijay Singh, $220,000	67-69-72-71-279
Stewart Cink, $180,000	70-69-72-69-280
Chad Campbell, $161,250	67-70-74-70-281
Retief Goosen, $161,250	67-67-74-73-281
M. Calcavecchia, $145,000	69-70-70-73-282
Jose M. Olazabal, $135,000	73-69-66-75-283
Justin Leonard, $120,000	71-69-76-69-285
John Rollins, $120,000	70-69-74-72-285
Jesper Parnevik, $91,000	70-71-73-72-286
Padraig Harrington, $91,000	70-71-73-72-286
Robert Gamez, $91,000	70-68-75-73-286
K.J. Choi, $91,000	70-70-73-73-286
Ernie Els, $91,000	73-70-70-73-286
John Huston, $70,000	66-74-78-69-287
Stuart Appleby, $70,000	71-71-76-69-287
Jeff Sluman, $70,000	70-72-72-73-287
Peter Lonard, $56,000	72-72-75-69-288
Jay Haas, $56,000	75-69-71-73-288
Ben Crane, $56,000	73-68-73-74-288
Tim Herron, $44,000	72-68-77-72-289
Shigeki Maruyama, $44,000	69-75-72-73-289
Jim Furyk, $44,000	68-70-75-76-289
Charles Howell III, $37,750	64-74-77-75-290
Jay Williamson, $37,750	73-73-70-74-290
Spike McRoy, $32,500	68-68-84-71-291
Adam Scott, $32,500	67-72-79-73-291
Rory Sabbatini, $32,500	71-71-75-74-291
Jonathan Byrd, $32,500	74-72-71-74-291
Lee Westwood, $32,500	72-68-75-76-291
Glen Day, $25,250	73-73-74-72-292
J.P. Hayes, $25,250	73-72-73-74-292
Stephen Leaney, $25,250	73-72-73-74-292
Carl Pettersson, $25,250	70-70-77-75-292
Bob Tway, $25,250	69-72-74-77-292
Jeff Maggert, $25,250	68-73-71-80-292
Hidemichi Tanaka, $19,500	70-72-79-72-293
Ian Leggatt, $19,500	70-76-74-73-293
Steve Lowery, $19,500	70-76-73-74-293
Brad Faxon, $19,500	67-77-74-75-293
Gene Sauers, $19,500	70-75-70-78-293
Tim Petrovic, $15,050	70-71-78-75-294
Luke Donald, $15,050	70-69-80-75-294
Kevin Sutherland, $15,050	73-71-73-77-294
Mark O'Meara, $15,050	76-69-72-77-294
Gary Nicklaus, $12,800	69-75-77-74-295
David Gossett, $12,800	72-74-75-74-295
Dudley Hart, $12,300	69-72-76-79-296
Tim Clark, $11,725	74-72-79-72-297
Billy Andrade, $11,725	69-75-79-74-297
Len Mattiace, $11,725	70-72-80-75-297
David Peoples, $11,725	77-68-77-75-297
John Daly, $11,350	68-73-83-74-298
Craig Perks, $11,350	70-72-76-80-298
Jerry Kelly, $11,050	70-72-84-73-299
Bob Burns, $11,050	75-68-82-74-299
Keith Fergus, $11,050	69-76-79-75-299
Peter O'Malley, $11,050	72-71-76-80-299
Frank Lickliter II, $10,750	72-72-81-75-300
Woody Austin, $10,750	68-74-76-82-300
David Duval, $10,550	73-72-78-78-301
Jonathan Kaye, $10,550	73-73-76-79-301
David Edwards, $10,350	72-73-81-77-303
Peter Jacobsen, $10,350	73-71-80-79-303
Chris Smith, $10,200	73-72-84-75-304
J.L. Lewis, $10,100	77-69-85-76-307