Scheffler: ‘I felt like I was going to shoot 90'
TREE TROUBLE: Rory McIlroy plays his second on 13 at the Memorial Tournament Friday at Muirfield Village. Pic: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images
'IS that a question', wondered Tommy Fleetwood when a writer suggested that the windy conditions for round two of the Memorial at Muirfield Village were tricky.
“Yeah, we’ll expand on that. It was pretty brutal, actually,” said the English man. Justin Thomas hit a phenomenal flop shot from behind the 18th green and holed a 6-foot par putt to make the cut on the number.
“I can’t put into words how hard that was,” said Thomas, who did anyway. “That was the hardest round of golf that I can remember, major, non-major, it was just insane.”
J.T. Poston somehow managed eight birdies in a round of 7-under 65, a score best measured by the fact he was nine shots better than the field average, enough for a one-shot lead over Ryan Gerard going into the weekend at Muirfield Village.
Poston was at 9-under 135, a score not many saw coming. It was all about the wind, not the strongest these players have ever felt (especially if they have been to Kapalua or Scotland) but Muirfield Village has so much trouble and so little room to play it safe that it became vexing.
That wasn’t the case for Poston, who decided last week to change to what he called the “left dash ball Titleist makes.” “It’s supposed to help me a little bit in the wind,” Poston said. “So we felt like today was going to be a good test of that and it obviously performed really well. We had a couple shots that I felt like didn’t quite hit them perfect and it hung in there pretty well.” Of course, there was a player hitting the shots, and in his case rolling the putts. So was it the golf ball or the putter?
“Both,” Poston said. “The ball got me there, the putter helped me get it in the hole.” Only two of his eight birdie putts were inside 10 feet. Statistically, Poston picked up four shots on the field with his putting in the strokes gained category. He took 24 putts and the distance they covered was 134 feet. No matter which number, it was really good.
He might have been the only one happy to see wind.
“It’s hard to say I wasn’t when you shoot 65. I just knew it was going to play tough and the goal was to try and be patient and keep hitting the shots like I was hitting yesterday and it helps to get off to a great start, make a few nice, longish putts the first couple holes and I feel like I was just kind of off and running.”
Scottie Scheffler hit a shank, said he felt like he was going to shoot 90 and came to life late with three birdies to salvage a 72. He was 10 shots behind in his bid for a third straight victory at the Memorial.
Rory McIlroy had a double bogey and two bogeys over his last six holes for a 74. He also was 10 shots behind in his bid to win for the first time in 14 tries at Muirfield Village. Better off is Shane Lowry who is eight back of Poston on -1 going into the weekend. It could have been better but for a closing double bogey six.
Lowry had birdies at the 13th, 15th and 16th only to suffer the frustration of a lip out and a miss back on the 18th green.
Meanwhile Ireland's Leona Maguire and Olivia Mehaffey both missed the midway cut at the US Women’s Open at Riviera. Maguire was undone by a triple-bogey on the par 4 2nd (her 11th) en route to a 75 after her first round 76. She missed the cut by five. Mehaffey crashed to a seven over 78.
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