World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler grinded by way of brisk winds to fireplace a four-under par 68 and seize a three-stroke lead after the second spherical of the PGA Memorial event.
The 2-time Masters champion, searching for his fifth victory of the 12 months, stood on nine-under 135 after 36 holes on the Jack Nicklaus-hosted occasion in Muirfield Village.
“You’ve acquired to play it pretty conservative out right here, simply with how a lot hassle there may be across the golf course. There’s a number of hazards and also you’ve acquired the heavy tough,” Scheffler mentioned.
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“Might be actually robust to guage the wind. I’m simply making an attempt to do my finest to execute. Generally I get the wind proper and hit the precise shot. Different instances, issues don’t work out as effectively.
“We’ll see how the winds are this weekend. I feel it’ll solely get more durable.”
Defending champion Viktor Hovland of Norway fired his second 69 to share second with Canada’s Adam Hadwin, the 18-hole chief who settled for a 72 to complete on 128.
“Some good gusts there,” Hovland mentioned. “And a few regular winds makes it much more troublesome. So did a superb job of simply hitting a bunch of fairways, however even then, there’s a number of pondering and guessing going into the greens.
“It’s simply laborious to get it near the outlet, however I managed to try this in some way.”
South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and American Keegan Bradley shared fourth on 139 with Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg on 140.
4-time main winner Rory McIlroy was on 141 with Individuals Tony Finau, Akshay Bhatia and second-ranked Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler has 4 triumphs and two runner-up efforts in his previous seven begins and appeared poised for one more top-two end within the ultimate tune-up for subsequent week’s US Open.
The 27-year-old American seeks his tenth profession PGA Tour title.
“That’s finest on the earth proper there,” the principle commentator mentioned as Scheffler completed his spherical.
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Scheffler dropped his strategy to eight ft and sank the birdie putt on the third gap to match Hadwin for the lead, then moved forward with a birdie putt from simply inside eight ft on the par-5 fifth to achieve 7-under.
Scheffler made one other birdie putt from simply inside six ft on the ninth to achieve the flip forward by two.
At 10, Scheffler missed the inexperienced along with his strategy however sank a putt from simply past 15 ft to save lots of par. On the par-5 eleventh he discovered the left tough and a greenside bunker then missed a par putt from simply inside 10 ft.
Scheffler discovered the left tough off the thirteenth tee and missed an 11 foot par putt, dropping him again right into a share of the lead with Hadwin.
“That’s a nasty miss there,” Scheffler mentioned. “Unlucky sequence of occasions however nonetheless felt like I used to be hitting it very well.” Scheffler righted his spherical, nonetheless, on the par-5 fifteenth, when he reached the inexperienced in two and sank an eagle putt from simply inside 9 ft to revive his two-stroke edge.
“It was good to get one in shut on 15 and make a putt,” Scheffler mentioned. At 18, Scheffler despatched his tee shot right into a fairway bunker, landed his strategy simply inside 12 ft, then curled in a birdie putt.
“Obtained a superb break,” Scheffler mentioned. “Ended up within the bunker as a substitute of the tough and was in a position to stand up there on the inexperienced and gap one other good putt.”
Hovland birdied three of the final six holes, a tap-in on the final matching him with Hadwin, who took a double bogey at 17 after discovering fairway and greenside bunkers.
Schauffele, coming of his first main win on the PGA Championship final month, shot 73 however hit his most spectacular shot at 14. He soared method proper of the cart path, then over the inexperienced right into a bunker, however blasted in for birdie from 28 ft.
The ball crashed into the underside of the flag then sat close to the sting of the outlet for seconds earlier than finally dropping into the cup.
“One of many funkier pictures you’re going to see. They find it irresistible right here Nearfield Village,” the principle commentator mentioned.
“It’s Xander’s 12 months.”
Jackson Koivun, a 19-year-old US collegian, grew to become the primary beginner since 2009 to make the Memorial reduce, doing so on the quantity at 148 regardless of a 76.
“It’s superior,” Koivun mentioned. “In the present day might be the toughest golf situations and course I ever performed.”
— AFP