MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Justin Thomas won the FedEx St. Jude Invitational on Sunday to take the No. 1 spot in the world for the first time since June 2018.

Thomas dueled defending champion Brooks Koepka down the final holes, sealing the World Golf Championship victory on the par-5 16th. Thomas took the lead for good with his second straight birdie, while Koepka bogeyed the hole.

Koepka pulled within a stroke with a 39-footer for birdie on No. 17. But Koepka put his tee shot into the water along the 18th fairway on his way to double bogey, allowing Thomas to finish up an easy par putt for what wound up a three-stroke victory.

Thomas closed with a 5-under 66 to finish at 13-under 267 and take the $10.5 million winner’s check for his 13th PGA Tour title. At 27, he became the third-youngest player since 1960 to reach 13 PGA Tour wins, trailing only Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.

This was the fifth time Thomas rallied to win, and he matched his biggest comeback after starting the day four strokes back of third-round leader Brendon Todd. Thomas has three wins this season, two since the start of the year.

The last time Thomas was No. 1, he spent four weeks at the top of the ranking. He will supplant Jon Rahm, who became No. 1 after winning at Memorial two weeks ago.

Koepka will go to TPC Harding Park in San Francisco looking to defend his PGA championship title. He finished with a 69 and tied for second with Phil Mickelson (67), Daniel Berger (65) and Tom Lewis (66).

Thomas started Sunday with Jim “Bones” Mackay on his bag playing in the same group with Mickelson for the first time since Mickelson split with his longtime caddie. Thomas made up the deficit with four birdies on the front nine and just missed another birdie chance on No. 8. His 20-footer on No. 9 tied Todd at 12 under.

Todd, whose putting had carried him through the first three rounds, three-putted for bogey from 23 feet on the par-3 eighth, leaving Thomas alone atop the leaderboard.

Thomas put his second on the par-4 12th into a greenside bunker near the back edge and chopped it out to the rough. He chipped out from an awkward stance to salvage bogey.

That created a five-way tie at 11 under with Koepka, Berger, Lewis and Todd.

Koepka took the lead to himself on the par-4 13th. He hit his approach from 133 yards to 10 feet of the pin, and Koepka sunk the putt for his third birdie of the round to go to 12 under.

After hitting his tee shot 321 yards to the rough 51 yards short of the hole on No. 15, Thomas hit to 6 feet for a birdie, tying Koepka at 12 under with three to play. Thomas found the rough far right of the cart path on the par-5 16th, then hit his third from the left rough 65 yards to 3 feet for his second straight birdie.

Koepka, in the group behind Thomas, tried to answer 42 yards from the hole. His shot landed close to the hole only to keep rolling to the back of the green. Koepka wound up two-putting from 8 feet for bogey.

• Richy Werenski holed a flop shot from the fairway on the par-4 18th for a five-point eagle and birdied the last hole for a one-point victory over Troy Merritt in the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California.

Werenski won for the first time on the PGA Tour, scoring 13 points in the final round on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course.

The fifth straight first-time winner in the tour’s lone modified Stableford scoring event, Werenski earned a spot in this week’s PGA Championship in San Francisco. He and Merritt also secured spots in the U.S. Open in September at Winged Foot.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Sam Horsfield shot a final round 4-under 68 to win the Hero Open by one stroke in Birmingham, England.

The 23-year-old Englishman clinched his first European Tour title with an 18-under 270 total, holding off second-place Thomas Detry, whose 6-under 66 had briefly given him a share of the lead.

Detry, a 27-year-old Belgian, had nine birdies and three bogeys in his final round at the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel and Country Club.

Overnight leader Horsfield birdied the 17th hole to go ahead of Detry, who was already in the clubhouse, and secured victory with par at the 18th. His victory was powered by a 9-under 63 on Friday.

Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez of Spain, who set a course record 10-under 62 in the opening round, shot 1-over 73 and finished tied for 10th on 11 under.

Miguel Angel Jimenez, making his record 707th European Tour appearance, shot a par-72 to finish tied for 34th on 7 under.

LPGA: Danielle Kang played the brand of steady golf that wins on tough golf courses, closing with a 2-under 70 on at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio and winning the LPGA Drive On Championship in the first LPGA Tour event in more than five months.

Kang and Celine Boutier of France turned the final hour into a terrific duel, and they were tied when Kang made her lone bogey on the par-5 13th with a poor chip from the thick collar.
It was Boutier who blinked last. She missed a short par putt on the 15th hole to fall one shot behind, and then stuffed her approach to 4 feet below the hole on the 18th. Instead of a playoff, however, Boutier made a tentative stroke on a tricky putt and the ball caught the left edge of the cup and spun away.

Kang, the No. 4 player in the women’s world ranking, won for the fourth time in her career. It was her first LPGA competitoin since Jan. 23 in Florida. She did not go to Australia, and then the COVID-19 pandemic halted play on the Asian swing and then on through the summer.

She has won in each of her last four seasons, starting with the Women’s PGA Championship in 2017.

Boutier, who won the Women’s Texas Open during her time off, made an 8-foot birdie putt on the 14th to tie Kang before she started to slip. The Frenchwoman closed with a 71.

Inverness hosted the one-time event, and both contenders are likely to be back next summer when the storied club hosts the Solheim Cup. The LPGA Tour stays in northeast Ohio next week for the Marathon Classic.

Kang finished at 7-under 209.

Inverness allowed only five players to finish under par.

Minjee Lee of Australia shot 70 and finished alone in third, three shots behind. She was followed by Yui Kawamoto of Japan, who shot a 72, and Jodi Ewart Shadoff of England, who faltered later for a 75.

Ewart Shadoff, still searching for her first LPGA Tour victory, was three shots behind on the back nine until she went bogey-bogey-double bogey through the 15th hole, and finished with a birdie when it was too late.

Nelly Korda, at No. 2 the highest-ranked player in the field, tied for 40th.

Several top players from South Korea played their home tour this week, including Jin Young Ko and Sung Hyun Park. It is not clear if they will travel to Scotland for the Women’s British Open.

PGA TOUR: Richy Werenski holed a flop shot from the 16th fairway for a five-point eagle and birdied the last for a one-point victory over Troy Merritt in the Barracuda Championship in Truckee, California.

Werenski won for the first time on the PGA Tour, scoring 13 points in the final round on Tahoe Mountain Club’s Old Greenwood Course — the first-time venue after 21 years at Montreux Golf and Country Club. The 28-year-old former Georgia Tech player won the event three years after losing to Chris Stroud on the second hole of a playoff.

The fifth straight first-time winner in the tour’s lone modified Stableford scoring event, Werenski earned a spot next week in the PGA Championship in San Francisco. He and Merritt, also in the field next week at TPC Harding Park, secured spots in the U.S. Open in September at Winged Foot.

Werenski finished with 39 points, with players getting eight points for albatross, five for eagle, two for birdie, zero for par, minus-one for bogey and minus-three for double bogey or worse.

CHAMPIONS TOUR: Jim Furyk turned 50 when golf was shut down and made the most of it when the PGA Tour Champions returned, closing with a 4-under 68 to win the Ally Challenge in Grand Blanc, Michigan when Brett Quigley bogeyed his last two holes.

Furyk became the first player since Miguel Angel Jimenez in 2014 to win in his first start on the 50-and-older circuit.

His victory came at a familiar place. Warwick Hills was one of his favorite stops on the PGA Tour when it hosted the Buick Open until a decade ago. Furyk won there in 2003 and was a runner-up two other times.

It was his first victory since the RBC Heritage in 2015.

Furyk, a former U.S. Open champion with 17 titles on the PGA Tour, was hardly out of competitive shape. He played five times on the PGA Tour over the last two months, making three cuts.

He started the final round one shot out of the lead, and when Carlos Franco squandered an eagle start at end of his front nine, and Tommy Armour III faded early, it came down to Furyk and Quigley.

Quigley birdied the par-5 16th to tie for the lead, only to catch the left lip on a par putt on the 17th to give Furyk control. He dropped another shot on the 18th for a 1-under 71 and tied for second with two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, who closed with a 66.

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