Will Zalatoris took advantage of the friendlier conditions later on Friday to finish his round five under, giving him the outright lead at nine under through two rounds at Southern Hills Country Club.
He is the only player to shoot 66 or better in the first two rounds as fellow fast-starters Rory McIlroy and Tom Hoge both finished over par their second time around the course.
Zalatoris went bogey-free, birdieing the first hole, the 17th, and three consecutive starting on the 11th. While the conditions were conducive to scoring, both of his playing partners – Cameron Smith and Victor Hovland – shot even-par 70s.
In outright second place at eight under is Chile's Mito Pereira, who was one shot off the round-of-the-day with his six-under 64, leaving him at eight under through two rounds. He had seven birdies – including back-to-backs on holes four-five and 10-11 – and just one bogey on 12.
Justin Thomas posted his second consecutive 67 to have a share of third place at six under, and he is one shot ahead of Bubba Watson, who shot Friday's best round of 63 – tying the course record – with nine birdies and two bogeys. He sits alone in fourth.
Tiger Woods was in danger of missing the cut after a double-bogey on the 11th moved his score to five over, but he responded in terrific fashion.
Showing his quality, Woods one-putted on the next six greens for two birdies and four pars to leave him one shot inside the cut-line (four under) heading onto the 18th. With a par on the last, he finished his round one under and earned two more rounds of action.
First-round leader McIlroy is in a share for fifth af four under after his round of 71, and he's tied with Mexico's Abraham Ancer and America's Davis Riley.
England's Matt Fitzpatrick and American Stewart Cink are one further shot back at three under in a tie for eighth, and there is a logjam at two under, tied for 10th, highlighted by Cameron Smith, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Kuchar.
A strong grouping of Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau and Jordan Spieth are part of a large contingent at one over, with Brooks Koepka and Jon Rahm a further stroke back after they posted scores of 67 and 69 respectively on Friday.
Jason Day is tied with Woods at three under, while at four under Collin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama just did enough to qualify for the weekend.
Matt Wallace one stroke behind lead after first day of PGA Memorial in Ohio
Englishman Matt Wallace is one stroke behind leader Davis Riley after the first day of the PGA Memorial Tournament on Thursday, on a hot day in Dublin, Ohio.
Wallace, who has one PGA tour win, had a strong start to the tournament, hitting six birdies and two bogeys to finish the day with 68 and four under.
Fellow countryman Danny Willett was a stroke behind Wallace, finishing tied in third with seven others.
Willett, 35, who also has one PGA tour victory to his name, hit four birdies, an eagle and three bogeys to finish on three under par at Muirfield Village Golf Course.
Irishman Shane Lowry finished the day tied with Willett, after he had five consecutive birdies, alongside Jordan Spieth and David Lipsky.
Leader Davis Riley played the conditions well and is hoping to win his second PGA tour title, hitting just one bogey and six birdies to finish on five under.
Rory McIlroy finished even for the day with a triple bogey on the last hole undoing his good work during the day.
He finished tied in 33rd place after hitting four birdies before the last hole.
World number one Scottie Scheffler had his highest opening round since October 2021, finishing on two over par and seven strokes behind the lead.
I don’t think LIV golfers should be on European Ryder Cup team – Rory McIlroy
Rory McIlroy has reiterated his opposition to LIV Golf players being allowed to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup.
World number two Jon Rahm believes the likes of Sergio Garcia, with whom he formed a successful partnership in 2021, should be able to compete in Rome and said he was sad that “politics have gotten in the way” of the biennial event.
Garcia is the leading points scorer in Ryder Cup history, but made himself ineligible by resigning from the DP World Tour in the wake of increased sanctions being imposed for playing LIV Golf events without permission.
American players remain eligible despite being banned or resigning from the PGA Tour in the wake of joining the Saudi-funded circuit, with Brooks Koepka set to qualify automatically following his victory in the US PGA Championship.
“I certainly think Brooks deserves to be on the United States team,” McIlroy said in his pre-tournament presser ahead of the Memorial Tournament.
“I think with how he’s played, I mean, he’s second in the US standings, (having) only played two counting events.
“I don’t know if there’s anyone else on the LIV roster that would make the team on merit and how they’re playing. But Brooks is definitely a guy that I think deserves to be on the US team.
“But I have different feelings about the European team and the other side and sort of how that has all transpired and, yeah, I don’t think any of those guys should be a part of the European team.”
McIlroy finished in a tie for seventh behind Koepka at Oak Hill, despite struggling with his long game, but the lack of faith in his “biggest weapon” may not prove as much of an issue at Muirfield Village.
“I can’t remember a time where I felt so uncomfortable over the ball for four days,” McIlroy said.
“The golf course allowed me to manage it. There was only two holes I felt at Oak Hill that really penalised big misses, which was six and seven. So you take those two holes out of it and it was what I would describe as a bogey golf course.
“It was very hard to make anything worse than a bogey. So you hit it in the rough off the tee, you got these openings into greens, you can run it up into the openings, make your par and move on.
“I needed to go back home and work on some things and, yeah, feeling a lot better about it, not fighting the club face quite as much. Feel a little bit more free, which is obviously a nice feeling.
“I think the one thing here, if you look at the recent winners, maybe apart from Jon (Rahm), they have all been sort of like medium-length hitters.
“I only hit four or five drivers on this golf course so it takes the driver out of my hands a lot. A lot of fairways bottleneck at like 330, 340 (yards) so the biggest weapon in my bag isn’t quite the weapon that it is at some other golf courses.
“I have played okay here and had some decent finishes, but I guess it sort of surprises me with the four par fives and the way the golf course sets up that I haven’t at least had a real chance to win here.”
Brendan Lawlor and Kim Moore excited for next week’s Scandinavian Mixed event
G4D Open champions Brendan Lawlor and Kim Moore will compete in the inaugural Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed event next week.
The tournament at Ullna Golf and Country Club from June 5-6 will see five male players and five female players competing for the same trophy on the same course for the first time.
Lawlor, who edged out Kipp Popert to win the inaugural G4D Open at Woburn earlier this month, will be joined in Sweden by Popert – the current number one on the World Rankings for Golfers with a Disability (WR4GD) – Juan Postigo Arce, Kurtis Barkley and home favourite Rasmus Lia.
“I’m very excited for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed,” Lawlor said. “The fact that there’s a whole diverse range of disabilities and it’s a mixed field between five men and five women, it’s absolutely game-changing.
“We’ve gained some massive strides in the men’s side of the game and in disability golf, and I think we’re going to gain some massive strides in the women’s side of the game.”
Moore, who won the female category of the G4D Open by four shots, is joined by Aimi Bullock, Julia Bowen, Fiona Gray and Jennifer Sraga.
“I feel with the growing number of new golfers being women, it’s extremely important for the G4D Tour to be opening up the event to both male and female golfers,” Moore said.
“The exposure that this event gets will be huge in motivating and inspiring others with disabilities to give golf a chance.”
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