Spieth, “Beef” and several “unknowns” adorn Memorial leaderboard
COVER PHOTO: Jordan Spieth hits his third shot out of the sand for a birdie on No. 10. Picture by Mac Connor/Columbus Wired.
Davis Riley. Matt Wallace. Danny Willett. Adam Hadwin. Jordan Spieth. Shane Lowry.
Those are the names that grace the tops of the leaderboard at the 48th annual Memorial Tournament.
If you’re a true-blue fan of golf then a couple of those names shouldn’t sound unfamiliar.
Danny Willett, the Official World Golf Ranking’s 106th-best player, is a 15-year PGA TOUR pro as well as a Masters champion. That win in 2016 is his only career TOUR win. The five-time Memorial participant has missed the cut in four out of his last five tourneys this year including last year’s Memorial Tournament after making the cut the first three times he played the Muirfield Village Golf Club. However, he tied the second-best round of his career on Jack Nicklaus’s course on Thursday with a 69, which is tied-for third overall.
Adam Hadwin (OWGR No. 74) is a 14-year pro who also has only one TOUR win, which came in the Valspar Championship over six years ago. The eight-year-straight Memorial golfer has made the tournament’s cut five times since his 2015 debut but shot the fifth-best round of his Memorial career on Thursday with a 69 to put him tied with Willett and a few others.
Not to be outdone, Matt Wallace (No. 120) is also a one-win TOUR guy whose one victory came near the end of March in the Dominican Republic at the Corales Puntacana Championship. Since then, he’s missed the cut four out of his last five events and his best finish since winning the Corales was the next week at the Valero Texas Open where he tied-for 28th. He’s also currently tied for third.
However, Davis Riley? Yep, you guessed it. Another “unknown”, the world’s 79th-ranked, 26-year-old, four-year pro from Hattiesburg, Miss. - who has won one career event since 2019 and missed five straight cuts this year - is your first round leader with a five-under par, 67.
Two recognizable names that are also in the mix after day one are Jordan Spieth and Shane Lowry with Spieth currently ranked 11th while Lowry “Big Beef” sits No. 26. Both are also tied-for third.
Riley said winning Jack’s tournament would be a huge deal.
“It would mean everything. Obviously, Jack, arguably the best to ever play golf and all the history here and just the guys that have won here. Yeah, I'm just thinking about all that in my head.”
After teeing off in the afternoon on No. 10, Riley’s round consisted of five birdies and one bogey, which came on par-4, No. 18. He proceeded to go bogey-free on the front with four birdies including Nos. 6 and 7 as well No. 9, where he knocked down a 13-foot putt for the bird.
The second-year Memorial participant said there are a lot of things to learn on Jack’s course from year one to year two.
“It was my first time around it last year and obviously a course like this there's a lot of stuff you're learning every single day," Riley said. I don't think you can learn everything about this place in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of your first year here.”
Third-year participant Wallace, who missed the cut in 2021 but finished tied-for fourth in his first appearance in 2020, said this was one of the best rounds he’s had in a while.
“Today was a really, really good round. Probably one of the best rounds I’ve hit it in a long time.”
Hadwin said his short game was the big reason for his success.
“Hitting six fairways and 10 greens, I think three-under par is really good. I didn’t drive it as well as I needed to today (but) having 26 putts helps (and) I made bunch out there and kind of saved myself.”
Willett, who was in the very first group of the day off No. 1, said the key was not doing anything too crazy, which put him in the position he’s in.
“This place is difficult,” he said afterwards. “I think the difference is, if you’re out of position, you don’t do anything silly. You might hit (a chip shot) a couple of feet closer and all of a sudden that makes a world of difference when you add it up over the round.”
Spieth, on the other hand - a 10-year veteran of the tournament every year since 2013 and has only missed one cut (2018) - said it felt “nice to beat a tough course” although not everything was perfect. He teed off at No. 1 in the afternoon and bogeyed the first two holes. After that, he didn’t shoot another bogey and holed out five birdies.
“It felt like a great round,” he said afterwards. “It was nice to beat a tough golf course. I feel like it was actually, like, kind of an off day and I got away with a lot by the way I scrambled.”
According to the PGA Tour’s official website, he led all players during the first round in scrambling at 90 percent and was 80 percent in sand saves including an amazing birdie out of the upper-left trap on par-4, No. 10.
After shanking his second shot from the right fairway into the upper-left bunker, he calmly stepped into the sand and pitched it out just left of the hole. From there, it began to veer right and rolled straight into the hole. He said it was that shot that got him back on track and in a good state of mind.
“I feel like the bunker play is one of the strengths of my game, and the last couple tournaments it's been really poor, actually poor enough to not allow me to have a chance to win golf tournaments. I hit a pretty fantastic shot there and it just gave me a lot of confidence. Like, all right, my entry point's back, I feel good about sliding the club under the ball and stuff like that and scrambled really well.”
Lovingly known around the golf world because of his semi-chubby proportion and overly cherub disposition, Shane “Beef” Lowry teed off on No. 10 as one of the last morning groups of the round and the world’s 26th-best player didn’t disappoint as he holed out a Thursday-best five-straight birdies on Nos. 11-15 and followed it up with a sixth bird on par-4, No. 2. He, however, had to swallow three bogeys in between those birdies on Nos. 16, 18 and 1. After that third bogey on No. 1, he birdied the following hole and managed par on every hole afterwards.
“Yeah, got off to a very hot start. I rolled in some lovely putts early on. You're not going to keep that going all day. I had a couple of slip ups … hit a couple of bad shots after that. You're going to make bogeys around this course after hitting bad shots. I said to my caddie walking there on (No.) 5 or 6 there, that just because I got off to a hot start, I feel like it's playing easy, and it's important not to get down on myself after making a few bogeys. Three-under is a pretty good score around here. I'm pretty happy with my start.”