Wyndham and J.J. sitting pretty after first round
Cover photo: Wyndham Clark hits his second shot from the fairway on par-4, No. 3 at the 51st annual Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. He would par the hole on his way to a first round, 67. Picture by Nicole McCray/Columbus Wired.
Wyndham Clark and J.J. Spaun had themselves quite the first round for the 50th anniversary of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday. Neither past U.S. Open winner has fared fairly well at the Muirfield Village Golf Club but both shot a five-under par, 67, and positioned themselves atop the leaderboard for the midday lead.
Maybe it was the fact they’ve been paired together the first two days of the 51st annual tourney on Jack Nicklaus’ course and were able to feed off of each other that led to their success; or maybe it was the sunny, 80 degree weather in Dublin, Ohio during this year’s opening round compared to last year’s first round where a mid-afternoon thunderstorm put a damper on things.
“It was crappy weather (on) Thursday (last year),” said Spaun. “I'm a Southern California guy, I don't really like playing in the rain. Even though I won the U.S. Open in the rain … it's weird. I hate the rain.”
For Clark, his approach was fairly simple.
“Every time I was in the fairway I gave myself a really good chance to make birdie,” he said. “So I just need to keep hitting fairways.”
The 2023 U.S. Open winner found the fairway on half of his tee shots with three holes resulting in birdies as well as an eagle after draining a 45-foot putt on par-5, No. 15.
He also said patience was a big factor.
“You hit it in the rough and you really can't advance it, so you got to be patient and take your medicine and hope you get up-and-down from a hundred yards, and I did that a couple times. And then you start hitting some good shots and you make some putts and it turns into a good round.”
Spaun nearly matched his playing mate with eight fairways hit, six of which resulted in birdies, including his second shot on No. 18 that he stuck within a foot of the hole for his eighth birdie of the day.
“I thought I did well between the ears today. The game's felt really good for a while now,” Spaun said.
After going bogey-free on the front nine with four birdies, the world’s No. 9 golfer had his only bogeys of the day back-to-back on par-5, No. 11 and par-4, No. 12.
“I would say kind of when I gave some back on 11 and 12, I could have probably let that round go. But (I) just kind of hung in there.”
Spaun finished with eight birdies while Clark ended the day with five birdies and two bogeys along with the eagle.
The two tee off at 1:05 p.m. EDT on Friday.
