``Best bunker shot I've ever hit in my life,'' Perry said.
Two holes later, he was in the deep rough above the 14th green, which should be familiar to longtime viewers of the Memorial. Countless are the replays of Woods leaving his chip from the same spot in the rough, then holing out for par and a big fist pump.
Perry needed only one try, a perfect flop that settled 3 feet away for par.
More perfection came from a 5-wood that landed softly on the green of the par-5 15th for a two-putt birdie that gave him control of the tournament. ``That was money,'' Perry said. ``That was butter.''
Weir made some great escapes, but not enough, and he never recovered from an approach that came up well short on the 10th and one that sailed long on the 11th, both leading to bogey, a product of deceptive wind.
``When you win a tournament, you guess right a few times,'' Weir said. ``Today, three times in a row I guessed wrong.''
Rose, one of four players with at least a share of the lead Sunday, had to save bogey from a bunker on the 12th and watched his approach carom off a sprinkler on the 13th. Kelly never had the lead, but he had a chance to get within one shot on the 17th until missing a 3-foot birdie putt.
That cleared the way for Perry to capture the Memorial for the third time and receive a warm handshake from Nicklaus.
``I hadn't seen you all week,'' he told Nicklaus walking off the 18th green. ``It's nice to see you here.''
He loves the course Jack built. And he was quick to point out another course Nicklaus designed - Valhalla.
