Sloppy 2nd round not enough for major shake-up at Memorial
COVER PHOTO: Matt Fitzpatrick lines up a putt while trying to balance his umbrella in the middle of a downpour during Friday's round of the 50th annual Memorial Tournament. Picture by Nicole McCray/Columbus Wired.
If you’re familiar with the legendary “Curse of Leatherlips”, then you know where this is headed. If not, then here’s the backstory.
Leatherlips was a Native American chief of the Wyandot tribe encamped in what is now Dublin, Ohio during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.
Part of the tribe decided to move northward near what is now Sandusky, Ohio. However, Leatherlips refused to go and it’s said the reason being he was close to a certain white family he’d become fond of and friends with.
Members of the tribe that moved began experiencing extreme hardship, including death, and felt Leatherlips had placed a curse on them for leaving. They made trips back to Dublin in an effort to persuade the headstrong chief but to no avail.
The others made one more attempt to sway Leatherlips in early June of 1810 but once again their intentions were met with obstinance. Their orders from the other chiefs of the tribe were to either bring Leatherlips to their new encampment or deliver him the ultimate fate. Leatherlips remained staunch in his stance and hence, the fate was delivered along the banks of the Scioto river. It is said the location was where a monument erected in his memory still stands today a few miles north of the Scioto River Bridge and state route 161.
Fast forward 160-plus years later and a pretty well-known golfer hailing from the approximate region wanted to start his own golf tournament, said to closely adorn the site of Leatherlips’ demise. Hence, the slain chief is said to haunt the area every year because the tournament is held close to the anniversary of his death.
For years, Jack Nicklaus’ tourney was plagued with rain delays. It seemed like a given that at least one round (or even two) would come to an abrupt stop, with two instances coming in 1977 and ‘97 of the final round not concluding until Monday. According to the official media guide, 47 of 184 rounds - covering 30 overall tournaments - have been either delayed, suspended or outright canceled due to bad weather.
Once again, the curse of Leatherlips struck. However, it wasn’t enough to cancel Friday’s round; even though it rained virtually non-stop for its entirety.
By the time the rain ceased close to 5 p.m., most of the field had already finished, having to slog their way through a slow-rolling second round at the Muirfield Village Golf Club. Although, the rain didn’t shake up Friday’s leaderboard compared to the day before.
Names like Ben Griffin, Collin Morikawa, Shane Lowry, Nick Taylor, Akshay Bhatia and Scottie Scheffler were all on the leaderboard after the first round. And their names still appear atop after the second, albeit with a couple of slight - but not so surprising - differences.
On Thursday, Griffin led by two strokes at 7-under par, and after 36 holes, the two-time PGA Tour winner held the same score. However, he’s now tied for the lead with Taylor, who was tied-for third on Thursday and moved up two spots after shooting a 68 on Friday.
Bhatia moved from a four-way tie for seventh on Thursday to sole possession of third after a second round 69.
Morikawa was in sole possession of second place after Thursday at 5-under but now sits tied-for eighth at -2 after shooting a 3-over par, 75, which included double bogeys on par-5, no. 15 and par-4, no. 17. He’s currently in a four-way tie with Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley and Tom Hoge.
Lowry moved down from his three-way tie for third on Thursday with Taylor and Keegan Bradley to a three-way tie for fifth with Sam Burns and a resurgent Jordan Spieth, after shooting even on Friday. Burns came in with the low round on the day with a 65 and Spieth moved up nine spots after carding a 69.
Then there’s Scottie.
The World’s No. 1 golfer and defending tournament champion was tied-for seventh after his first round 70 and followed it up with another 70 on Friday to move into sole possession of fourth place at 4-under overall.
He said despite the slop, he was happy with his performance.
“The golf course is playing really long,” he said. “When the rough gets this wet, any time you hit it in the rough, the lies are going to be really bad and it's going to be really challenging. So it's definitely important to keep the ball in play and try and stay dry.
“So overall, 2-under in these conditions was definitely not a bad score today.”
Taylor’s game wasn’t affected and the Canadian attributed it to the fact that he played a lot of it in his early 20’s as well as while attending the University of Washington.
“This was every day of my golfing life since I was about 23. Usually October through March or April this was a pretty standard day. College was the same. I went to school in Seattle. So I don't enjoy playing in this, but I've played in it enough where I kind of know what to expect.”
Even though Griffin couldn’t replicate quite the day he had on Thursday, he resonated Scheffler’s sentiments.
“(On) a day like today when it's really wet, I think hitting it in the rough is just even more penal,” Griffin said. “The ball just kind of goes straight to the bottom with the moisture, and then when there's moisture, it's harder to get to the ball down in the rough. So I had some very tricky lies.
“All in all, coming off of yesterday where I made just about everything I looked at, you can't do that every day when you're playing golf. So I'll take it and I'm excited to kind of keep the pedal down on the weekend.”
Taylor and Griffin are paired up for the third round and will tee off at 3:10 p.m. Scheffler and Bhatia are in the second-to-last group at 2:59 p.m.
OTHER NOTABLES
With this being a Signature Event, only the top 50 made the cut (or whoever is within 10 shots of the lead, hence the cut set at 5-over par). Here are some of the well known names that made it to moving day.
Justin Rose: The 44-year-old had the second-best Friday round with a 66 after shooting a 78 on Thursday. He had only two bogeys on Friday, which came on the first and last holes, but went on to eagle par-4, no. 3 while birdieing holes 10-12 and 14-16. The 2010 Memorial champ and this year’s Masters runner-up hopped up 50 spots from Thursday and is currently in a six-way tie for 12th at even par.
Patrick Cantlay, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Tony Finau: The quartet are currently tied-for 18th at 1-over. Fowler and Bradley are paired up with a 1:04 p.m. tee time while the 2019 and ‘21 Memorial champ Cantlay will play with last year’s Genesis Scottish Open and RBC Canadian Open winner, Robert MacIntyre. Finau is paired with Bud Cauley at 12:53 p.m.
Ludvig Åberg: The world’s No. 6 golfer is currently at 2-over after shooting a 75 on Thursday and a 71 on Friday. He tees off at 12:31 p.m. with World No. 70, Austin Eckroat.
Max Homa, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland: The trio are tied-for 31st with nine others at 3-over. After finding himself in sole possession of third place on Thursday at 4-under, Homa had a rough second round, carding two double bogeys, four bogeys and only one birdie for 7-over on Friday. Last year’s silver medal winner at the Paris Olympics, Fleetwood, went even on Thursday but had an up-and-down Friday that included six bogeys. Both are together for Saturday with an 11:58 a.m tee time.
Hovland played one stroke better on Friday with a 73, carding two bogeys and one birdie. The champ from two years ago will tee it up at 11:31 a.m. with a guy he went toe-to-toe with on the way to winning the 2023 tournament in a playoff, Denny McCarthy.
Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark, Hideki Matsuyama: The three are all tied for dead last, barely making the cut at 5-over.
Thomas was in serious danger of missing the cut after going 8-over on Thursday and continuously teetering at that number throughout his second round. However, the world No. 5 went bogey-free on the back nine, birdieing three of the final five holes to scratch out a 69. The two-time Major winner and world No. 5 is paired up with another Major winner, Matt Fitzpatrick, as the fourth group off the tee at 10:25 a.m.
Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champ, followed up a 78 on Thursday - where he carded seven bogeys and one double - with a much smoother one-under performance on Friday. He’s with Cameron Young as the second group off the course at 10:05 a.m.
After shooting a 74 on Thursday - that included a bogey, a double and a triple - Matsuyama actually dropped a shot on Friday with six bogeys against three birdies. Last year’s bronze medalist at the Olympics, this year’s first Signature Event winner (The Sentry) and the 2014 Memorial champ will be teeing off by himself at 10:00 a.m. as the first golfer out on the course.