Apparently, the young man has been reading up.

Hovland wasn’t the best ball striker this week at the Memorial Tournament. He wasn’t the best putter, either. But he was darn good at both. Throw in some respectable scrambling and you have a recipe for success, which is what the 25-year-old achieved with his playoff victory Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Enduring a 2022-23 season where he has come frustratingly close in several big events, including a share of second only two weeks ago in the PGA Championship, Hovland finally cashed in when he sank a seven-foot par putt on the 18th hole, the first hole of sudden death, to defeat hard-luck Denny McCarthy. The victory, Hovland’s fourth on the PGA Tour and his first on the U.S. mainland, was set up when he got up and down for par from behind the green on his final hole in regulation and McCarthy couldn’t do the same a few minutes later. They each shot 70 and finished at seven-under 281.

“I’ve been playing well, but I’ve just been trying to stay within myself and play my own game,” said Hovland, who also finished T-3 at the Players and T-7 at the Masters this year. “Maybe before I would have fired at some pins that I shouldn’t, but I played smart and came up clutch this time. It feels even better after a few close calls the last few months.”

Hovland, who trailed by as many as four shots at one point on a breezy final day, birdied two of his last four holes in regulation, including a 28-footer at the par-17th that was the only birdie at the long par-4 all day. His 281 total was the fourth-highest winning score in Memorial history and the highest since Hale Irwin won with the same total in 1985 as Muirfield Village, firm and fast, put up a fight that had players comparing it to a major examination.

Which perhaps was why Hovland eventually emerged with the victory. The former U.S. Amateur champion might not have been comfortable on difficult layouts in years past, but he’s warming up to them.

“I feel like I’ve won a decent amount of tournaments for only being a pro for four years,” said Hovland, also a two-time DP World Tour winner and a two-time champion of Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge. “However, they have been at low-key places, resort courses and abroad, so it feels really cool to get my first win on the U.S. soil, especially at a tournament like this where this week the golf course is arguably harder than most major championship golf courses we play. It felt like a major. So it was really cool that I was able to get it done at a place like this.”

Andy Lyons

He knows exactly how he got it done. Hovland, who joined Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy as the only player to have at least one win in the last four seasons, displayed enough of his usual solid play tee to green, but he ranked 21st in scrambling and third in strokes gained/putting, which was crucial to counter McCarthy, the tour putting leader who ranked first on Muirfield’s treacherous greens.

Joked tournament host Jack Nicklaus, “I walked out on the 18th green tonight with Viktor and I said, ‘This is what you guys putted on?’ It was hard.”

The whole place was hard, the course playing to a 74.985 scoring average during the final round.

“I’ve historically kind of done better at easier golf courses because of my aggressive nature of how I play the game and I like to hit right at the pin. So if the ball stops where it lands, I can be very aggressive and just take it at the pins,” said Hovland, who rose from seventh to fifth in the World Ranking. “On the harder golf courses, you can hit good shots and you’re just going to miss some greens. So if I’m missing more greens and I didn’t have the short game before, it just puts more pressure on my ball striking, and to a certain point there’s only so many greens that you can hit. I feel like maybe this week I hit about 10, 11, 12 greens every single day and didn’t hit it bad, by any means, I hit it fine, but if you don’t have a short game to kind of get you through those holes that you were missing greens on, then you just don’t have a chance.

“I feel like now with my good ball-striking and a short game that I can rely on, I feel like these hard golf courses should suit me a lot better than they have in the past.”

McCarthy, 30, led for much of the afternoon and had a putt for his first tour win after finding the rough left of the fairway at 18, but he missed from 23 feet. He then blocked his tee shot in the playoff into the right rough and again failed to reach the green in regulation. Hovland, meanwhile, drove 30 yards past McCarthy and in play and put his second shot on the green 51 feet left of the hole. His birdie try came up well short, but he managed to coax in the second in the right side of the cup for a victory worth $3.6 million in the designated event.

Dylan Buell

Both men began the day one stroke behind a trio of leaders, including World No. 3 McIlroy, but it was McCarthy, who finished T-5 at Muirfield Village last year, who leaped ahead by going out in 33 to lead by as many as two strokes for most of the day. A series of gutsy par saves kept him ahead until the last hole. The Maryland native still recorded his best finish on the PGA Tour, and his $2.1 million payday was four times the most he had previously earned in his six full seasons on tour.

“I battled really hard,” McCarthy said, fighting back his emotions. “Heartbroken right now, but a lot of positives to take from this week. Played really well and obviously my putter kept me in it when I was a little shaky. I hit a lot of good golf shots this week.”

McIlroy briefly separated himself from the tight-bunched leaderboard when he pitched in for birdie from well left of the green at the par-3 fourth hole to reach seven under, but he soon was passed by McCarthy, and a host of others, as the swing flaws he had been battling the last few months reared up. Bogeys on both par-five holes on the outward nine hinted at the struggles ahead, and McIlroy could never get untracked in a closing 75 that left him tied for seventh.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” McIlroy said. “I feel a little better about everything compared to where I was a couple weeks ago at Oak Hill. So it’s obviously not the result that I wanted today, but I feel like there was a few more positives than there was a couple weeks ago.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler finished third after firing the low round of the day, a five-under 67 that left him one back at 282. Playing alongside No. 2 Jon Rahm in a marquee pairing of the top-two golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler has been a ball-striking genius this season and dominated tee to green at Muirfield Village. His runner-up finish was his third straight top-five, and since winning the WM Phoenix Open in February, the powerful Texan hasn’t finished worse than T-12.

“I just tried to bring a good attitude coming in,” Scheffler said after making the cut on the number and then shooting a tournament-best nine under on the weekend. “The first two days here were really frustrating. It’s tough. It’s the fourth week in a row. I’m pretty tired. I was in contention at Byron, PGA, and Colonial, and I’m pretty worn out at the moment. So I was just proud of how I showed up this weekend and fought. I hit it so good and I gave myself a chance. Made a few more putts go in, it’s a little different story.”

Andy Lyons

The Memorial served as an Open Qualifier for the 151st championship next month at Royal Liverpool. The leading three players not already exempt earned a berth, and those spots went to Andrew Putnam (T-5), Adam Schenk (T-7) and Lee Hodges, who was T-12 and won a tiebreaker of David Lipsky via a higher World Ranking.

Speaking of majors, the U.S. Open is less than two weeks away, and Hovland hopes there’s more magic coming his way at Los Angeles Country Club. While failing to win at Oak Hill, a closing 70 was considered a victory of sorts as he continues to learn how to handle the pressure of the game’s biggest stages. Given the conditions, and the field, Hovland has reason to believe his victory at Muirfield Village is validation that his short game is catching up with the player Hovland hopes he can be.

The post How dangerous is Viktor Hovland with an improved short game? Look no further than his win at Memorial appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
The late Arnold Palmer inspired a new collegiate event at Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Yes, it really happened that way. And the match will carry the Nicklaus name, to boot.

After serving as co-captain of the U.S. team in the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup in France, Therese Hession, then the women’s golf coach at Ohio State University, was elevated to her current position as director of golf over both the women’s and men’s programs. Fresh in her mind was her Palmer Cup experience at Evian Resort Golf Club, where collegiate women joined the men for the first time.

Creating a mixed-team event seemed like a no-brainer. “I thought it would be a cool way to bring both of my teams together, and I knew of no other event in college golf like it,” said Hession, who approached officials at Muirfield Village about hosting it. They readily embraced the concept, she said, especially after learning Hession’s plan for what she wanted to call it.

After two years of delays, the Barbara Nicklaus Cup debuts next month at Muirfield Village, annual site of the Memorial Tournament on the PGA Tour.

Scheduled for Oct. 4-5, the match will feature a round-robin four-school competition that includes the men’s and women’s golf teams from Auburn, Arizona State and Florida State in addition to the Buckeyes. Hession wanted to name it after Barbara Nicklaus because of her contributions and support of the game and to charitable causes.

“Plus, she’s a Buckeye,” Hession said. “She has been such an inspiration to me and to so many others. I’ve watched Barbara from afar even before I came to Ohio State. She is just the kind of lady that has done so many great things for people, for the game of golf and who has touched a lot of hearts. This was something on my heart that I wanted to do.”

Barbara Nicklaus, 81, is an Ohio State alum and a recipient of several golf-related awards, including the Bob Jones Award from the USGA and the PGA of America Distinguished Service Award. Barbara and Jack, the hall of fame golfer and holder of a record 18 professional major titles, met at Ohio State as freshmen in 1957 and have been married for 61 years. A Columbus native, Barbara actively serves on the Captains Club of Muirfield Village, the organization that advises on the conduct of the Memorial Tournament, and is co-chair with son, Gary, of the Honda Classic, the tour event in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. She has long been called, “The First Lady of Golf.”

Among her many personal accomplishments is spearheading the establishment in 2004 of the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation, dedicated to improving pediatric care and research.

In her 30th year at Ohio State, Hession is a seven-time Big Ten Coach of the Year who has led the women’s team to 10 Big Ten titles and 17 appearances in the NCAA Division I Championship. The Indiana native had hoped to add the Barbara Nicklaus Cup to the Buckeyes’ 2019 schedule, but the start of renovations at Muirfield Village forced a delay to the spring of 2020 at an alternate site—Jack Nicklaus’ home course in Jupiter, Fla., the Bear’s Club. However, the coronavirus pandemic caused further postponement to this fall, enabling Ohio State to host the Barbara Nicklaus Cup at its originally proposed venue.

“This is our third time to give it a go, and we are so excited to provide an amazing experience for our student-athletes,” Hession said. “Two days playing Muirfield Village … that in itself should be something memorable for all the players.”

Andy Mead/ISI Photos
Ohio State head coach Therese Hession, the driving force behind the creation of this event.

Each school will field six players from each men’s and women’s team to compete in four mixed foursomes and four singles matches in head-to-head contests against each of the other three schools. Each match counts for one point with a maximum of eight points per contest. The school with the most points after the three separate rounds will be the winner.

Members of the winning school will receive Muirfield Village Golf Club pin flags signed by both Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, said Hession, who hopes that a trophy might be created for the occasion in the next few years.

While Hession isn’t sure if the Barbara Nicklaus Cup would be the first mixed-team collegiate match ever held, it is believed to be the only one in the nation during this fall season.

The post New Barbara Nicklaus Cup will feature mixed college team matches at Muirfield Village appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
It seemed rather appropriate, given the strange turn of events that unfolded this weekend at Muirfield Village Golf Club, that among the three players vying for first-place-with-an-asterisk in the 46th Memorial Tournament on Sunday, one would suffer a whiff and another would hit a shank.

The third man won.

Patrick Cantlay, shaking off a stretch of subpar play, became the seventh player to claim multiple titles at Jack Nicklaus’ home when he defeated Collin Morikawa with a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Which came one day after Jon Rahm, poised to be a repeat winner himself and only the second to win back-to-back, was given a sudden dismissal.

Cantlay and Morikawa, leaders by default after 54 holes, each posted 13-under 275 after closing with matching 71s on Nicklaus’ revamped Muirfield Village layout. Of course, it’s almost impossible to ignore the fact that Rahm, the 2020 winner, was out in a blazing 18 under through 54 holes, tying a tournament record, and then had his commanding lead wiped from the scoreboard because he tested positive for COVID.

Even Nicklaus said early Sunday that he had a trace of an empty feeling about the final round, and Cantlay and Morikawa seemed subdued in the final pairing. Stuck in neutral, they allowed a charging Scottie Scheffler to surge ahead at one point. But undone by bogeys from the fairway at Nos. 9 and 18, the former after shanking a wedge, Scheffler ended up third alone, posting 277 after a 70.

With his fourth PGA Tour title, Cantlay, 29, ended a brief interlude of frustration. He had missed the cut in four of his last seven starts and felt like he needed a victory, though he admitted, “Somehow I always feel like I badly need a win and a win will make things just a little bit better.

Even a win that he couldn’t deny was achieved amid bizarre circumstances.

“There’s maybe a little hint of something I can’t quite put my finger on, but I mean, the emotions I feel out there and the focus that it took today was just as any other tournament,” said Cantlay, who won the sixth playoff at Muirfield Village since 2014 and the fifth in the Memorial. “I would much rather have faced him [Rahm] down today and shot an extremely low round and beat him that way. But unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do. I did everything I could with the cards I was dealt, and I really did a good job of focusing today on the task at hand and staying present and that’s all you can do in this game.”

Before Rahm was shown the door, the Memorial was shaping up as a showdown – if you can call it that – among the last three winners at Muirfield Village. Rahm, though, clearly had socially distanced himself from the field overall, not by six feet but by six shots and the thought of the final round being largely a formality lasted all of about 25 seconds. Then Rahm received the dyspeptic news and the chasers became the leaders.

“You’re faced with a totally different mental approach,” Nicklaus said of the challenge the new leaders faced. “Either [they think] ‘I shouldn’t be in this position or that I am in this position, and I’ve got to take advantage of it.’”

Morikawa, who obviously has an affinity for Nicklaus course designs, had to feel good about his chances. He beat Justin Thomas in a playoff here last July in the Workday Charity Open held the week before Rahm took the Memorial. In February, Morikawa posted a three-stroke victory at The Concession Club in Bradenton, Fla., another Nicklaus product that served as a replacement site for the WGC-Mexico Championship.

Ranked sixth in the world coming in, Morikawa, 24, recalibrated his mindset overnight and chose option B, ready to take advantage of the opportunity he was presented. Thus, he was surprised that he played poorly, hitting just eight fairways and nine greens. His putter kept him in it. He needed just 25 putts on Sunday and 49 for the weekend.

He might look back on the sixth hole as the place where he lost the tournament. After flying the green with his approach after an ideal tee shot, he whiffed on his first chip shot, his wedge sliding fully under the ball. He did well to save a bogey by sinking an 11-footer, but that sequence was damaging.

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked by that,” said Morikawa, who is now fourth in the world. “I worked pretty hard on short game earlier in the week, trying all kinds of shots, so I felt good about what I wanted to do there. Never touched it. But I’m pretty sure I did the same thing here last year, too.

“Obviously it sucks to lose a playoff. But today was a grind and that’s all I could focus on,” he added. “I couldn’t really hit a green for my life. … But to get into a playoff, to make the putts I needed to make, just to keep myself in it, I’m proud of myself and it’s crazy. It’s crazy what a game it is.”

Equally crazy is that Cantlay, who won the 2019 Memorial thanks to a record closing 64, kept missing chances to pull ahead, but when he absolutely had to make one, he came through at the 17th hole. After waiting out a brief halt in play to let a passing downpour to pass, Cantlay poured in a 24-foot downhiller for birdie to tie Morikawa.

“There were a few short putts, mid-range putts, that I normally would make that today I didn’t, which made it a little more of a grind,” Cantlay admitted. “But made a few long ones, so it ended up being just enough.”

Having burned the right edge on a winning birdie try on the 72nd hole from 26 feet, Cantlay faced 12 feet for par from a similar line in the playoff. That one he nailed. When Morikawa missed from six feet to tie, Cantlay got the handshake from Nicklaus, with whom Cantlay says he has “a connection” of sorts.

“We are, I would say, good friends at this point, and so that makes [the win] just a little more special,” he added. “He’s taken me under his wing, and to do it at his place with the advice and encouragement that he’s given me over the years is very special for me.

The clouds that hovered over Muirfield Village in the final hour complemented a tournament conducted under a cloud of regret, and Cantlay and Morikawa and anyone else who was asked about it could only say that the turn of events late Saturday were “unfortunate.” But in the end, there was a winner and a trophy presentation and a smile from a quiet young man who now has to be considered one of the favourites when the U.S. Open visits his home state of California the week after next at Torrey Pines.

“Obviously, it’s nice to have some confidence and be playing well going into the U.S. Open,” he said after moving up from 15th to seventh in the world.

The win was nice too. Different, yes, but nice.

“I think I’ll definitely remember it slightly different,” Cantlay allowed. “But I’ll reiterate, you know, the way it felt today, it felt no different. And it is a very unfortunate situation and not anything I would wish on anybody. He [Rahm] played so great for the first three rounds. So, there’s a little something that I can’t quite put my finger on that make it’s feel a little different, but I really hit a lot of clutch solid shots today and so I think I’ll remember that mostly.”

Mostly, he should.

The post Patrick Cantlay deserves a star rather than an asterisk for this playoff victory appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski
DUBLIN, Ohio — Claude Monet once destroyed more than a dozen of his paintings before an exhibit because he didn’t believe they met his high standards. T.S. Eliot was an inveterate tinkerer, editing his poems verse with manic precision and purpose.

To create something of lasting excellence is a pursuit exceeded in difficulty only by recognising the merits of your own handiwork and discarding it to produce something superior.

Jack Nicklaus has spent decades honing, shaping, reconfiguring and stretching—yes, of course, always stretching—the confines of Muirfield Village Golf Club, the recognized masterpiece among his more than 300 golf-course designs. Annual site of the Memorial, which Nicklaus founded in 1976, Muirfield Village ranks among the finest courses in America and because of its strategic value, the scenic, sylvan layout holds the distinction of being the only venue in the world to host the Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup and Presidents Cup.

But Nicklaus, the winner of a record 18 major championships, never has afforded himself the luxury of satisfaction. The 46th edition of the tournament, which begins Thursday, will be contested on a golf course almost totally reimagined. What started as an exercise to improve the functionality of the layout by installing a sub-air system and ridding the fairways and greens of Poa annua became a revisionist mission.

The Golden Bear tore up his baby because, simply, he believed there were ways it could be better.

It sounds like a difficult undertaking. Muirfield Village already was highly revered. And then there is the sentimental value of a place that took a decade to develop from idea to reality and which he has invested so much of his time and energy for more than a half century going back to when he first started purchasing the land in 1966.

“It wasn’t hard for me to do at all,” Nicklaus said of his decision to overhaul his dream course, one fashioned with Augusta National Golf Club as the primary inspiration. “You just go do it. I’ve seen how the course has played over the years, recognized things I didn’t really like, and when we started talking about redoing the greens and the fairways to get rid of all the Poa annua, I decided now was the time to make changes that would result in a more enjoyable golf course for the members while still challenging the pros.”

Only two holes, Nos. 12 and 14, went unchanged as Nicklaus altered teeing grounds, built new greens, recontoured others, and narrowed or rerouted fairways. A precision air system was installed under the greens to control moisture. He also wiped the slate clean on bunkering by either repositioning them, or by adding or subtracting in key areas. He also found room for another 153 yards, bringing the course to 7,609 yards, a far cry (and carry) from the 6,969 yards that Muirfield Village measured when it opened in 1974.

Major revisions were made to holes 1, 4, 5, 7 and 15, with each featuring a new green complex.

Nicklaus said he had the most fun with the redesign of the 15th, and that is obvious. It is more interesting and more dangerous hole on the course. It used to be an arrow-straight par 5 that played up a steep hill, which strongly favoured a handful of longer hitters who could reach the crest while most players saw their tee shots plunk into the slope and die. He dropped the fairway about 20 feet, shifted it to the left, which brings the creek into play, and added four bunkers on the right in the landing zone. Up ahead, where the creek crosses over in front of the green, he dropped the putting surface and to the right he removed a mound and added bunkers, the effect of which is bringing the water into play again.

“I didn’t like that tee shot, so I said, ‘Let’s try to figure out how we’re going to get to where we can drive the ball up there and it’s as good for the average golfer as the long hitter,” Nicklaus said. “Jackie [Jack Nicklaus II] suggested cutting the hill down. And, and as we cut it down, we forced the fairway to the left toward the hazard. And now you have a better view of the hole.”

Known for his prescience in accurately predicting the winning score in majors during his prime, Nicklaus foresees a winning score this week in the “mid- to low 270s” after Jon Rahm won last year’s Memorial, held in July as part of a pandemic-induced reconfiguration of the tour schedule, by three strokes with a nine-under 279 total. Thanks to heat and a healthy breeze, Muirfield Village was rather inhospitable. And because the course was being torn up immediately following play (actually, the process started while the tournament was ongoing), the setup was severe.

“We could afford to stress it last year, and it probably was a little too much,” Nicklaus said. “This year I think the pros will play a little bit better on it, simply because I don’t think we’ll stress the golf course as much, as young as it is.”

Keyur Khamar
Members of the agronomy crew strip sod off the green on the sixth hole before the final round was even completed in 2020.

Chris Cochran, senior design associate at Nicklaus Design, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Nicklaus found the need for a further refinement or two. The Golden Bear wouldn’t disagree, and 15 might be a prime candidate. “I’ll see how it plays, but I’m already thinking that I might make that fairway 10 yards narrower and redo the bunkers.”

One alteration, though slight, is sure to be hugely popular with the contestants. The par-3 16th hole that Nicklaus redesigned in 2010 has been a nemesis to the field in its short life. Ranked the second most difficult hole since the 2011 Memorial, it plays up to 201 yards over water, and the shallow green always has been hard to hold. Nicklaus found out why last summer.

“The green actually pitched away in the back. I did not know that,” Nicklaus said with genuine wonder but blamed himself. “I figured it was built just as I drew it. So, I took seven inches out of the middle of the green and added seven inches to the back of the green. It changes the whole profile of the green, so it sits more towards the tee.”

Xander Schauffele, who played the back nine on Monday, noticed the difference.

“Obviously, some of the greens got a little severe and firm, and if you use 16 as an example, I’m sure it’s not what he envisioned initially,” said Schauffele, who’s preparing for his fourth Memorial. “Wanting us to hit 7-, 6-, 5-irons into that green, you can’t have it be downwind and pitched from front to back too severely. So, he kind of levelled that surface out just enough, and it seems much more fair.”

Greater risk-reward has been infused into the four par 5s, but the contours of many greens have been softened, particularly at Nos. 3, 4, 6, 10 and 18, which in each instance allows for more hole locations. There will be several new ones this week, giving players even more variation to digest.

“It’s one of the kind of most fun, most difficult but purest tracks that we play all year,” Jordan Spieth said Tuesday. “Even with most every single hole being changed it seems like it’s still that way, which is pretty remarkable in a year’s time. And it’s a golf course where you just can’t fake anything. I mean you’re either on or you’re not and you can see guys shoot six under and you see guys shoot six over in the same round. And there’s just very few golf courses that yield that kind of disparity in scores throughout a season.”

Scott Halleran
The 18th hole, show in 2013, has been softened to allow for more hole locations.

Nicklaus called this redesign of Muirfield Village, “the last bite of the apple,” and he means it. At 81, he does not have detailed instructions mapped out for any future changes the course might require. “I have no idea what equipment will be like 10-20 years from now, so how can I plan? And I’m pretty much out of room unless I go out into Muirfield Drive or something,” he said with a chuckle.

Nervousness and apprehension engulfed Nicklaus when the Memorial Tournament debuted in 1976. So much of what occurred then was uncharted territory for the Bear, who was only 36 at the time and had only a handful of design credits to his name. The unveiling this week of the new Muirfield Village, which has only hosted a week’s worth of member play and is in immaculate condition, stirs different emotions.

“I don’t know if it’s quite the same feeling as when we started. Maybe a little,” he said. “We were introducing a new tournament in 1976, and I wanted the course to show well and there was some anxiousness about that. This is still a familiar golf course to the pros. But it will be new to them, too. I think there’s a different type of excitement than when we started. It’s a new chapter in the story of this golf course.”

And a familiar story in Nicklaus’ career—always seeking excellence.

The post Jack Nicklaus explains everything you need to know about his new test at Muirfield Village appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Christopher Powers
Through two rounds of the Memorial Tournament, the top of the leader board is once again littered with some of the top players in world. But the real drama could be found on the cut line on Friday at Muirifield Village, mostly thanks to some guy named Tiger.

Now that Woods [and Brooks Koepka] lived to fight another day, everybody can rest easy knowing we’ll have a few more rounds of the Big Cat on the weekend. While that will be fun to watch, the real excitement will come in the final pairings. It’s not a major, but it certainly feels and looks like one so far.

Here are our five takeaways from Day 2 at the Memorial.

Cut-line drama remains undefeated

At the beginning of the day it was certain that two over would make the cut. Then it was possible that it moved up to one over. Three over seemed out of the question. Then it was suddenly within the realm of possibility that three over would be enough. By the time a few more guys melted down late on Friday [we’ll get to the mega meltdown in a second], four over was still on life-support. OK, maybe four over never had a chance, but you get the point. The cut-line drama was at an all-time high on Friday.

The entertainment factor ratchets up quite a bit when the man himself, Tiger Woods, is directly on the cut line for a solid three to four hours. Woods’ second-round 76 had him and the collective golf world sweating all afternoon, as it put him three over for the week. PGA Tour Live commentators seemed to be eulogizing him at the end of his round, which is why cut-line speculation, especially in extreme course conditions, is never a smart idea.

Ultimately, three over did indeed make it, bringing Woods, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Xander Schauffele all back into the mix for the weekend. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a channel dedicated only to the cut-line sweat? Golf’s version of “NFL RedZone.” This is not my original idea, and I want to say fantasy guru Pat Mayo implanted it in my brain at some point, so all credit to him. Not only would the gambling portion of golf’s fan base enjoy it, but regular fans would find it extremely entertaining as well. There’s something about that grind that people enjoy watching, and even relate to. It should be much more prominent on the broadcast.

Jamie Squire
Bryson DeChambeau made a 10 on the 15th hole on Friday.

That was an iconic Bryson meltdown

No need to break it down shot by shot, as our Daniel Rapaport did a great job of that here. But I’d be remiss to gloss over his epic 10 on the par-5 15th entirely, even though that’s exactly what DeChambeau wishes we all did. There are a number of videos on Twitter that I cannot share here that you simply must see.

There’s one of Bryson counting up his 10 like every hacker on the weekend looking back at the fairway and pointing at each shot. There’s one of Bryson’s caddie blocking a cameraman from filming Bryson walking [yes, walking, not kidding] after his tee shot at 16. There’s one of Bryson questionably patting down some rough before one of his drops in the woods on 15. There’s one of Bryson asking for a second ruling, not getting it and appearing very upset at the whole situation while a few people watched in their backyard from behind a fence.

It’s all over the ol’ Twitter machine if you look hard enough, and it’s all GRIPPING television. He gets a ton of flack, and rightfully so, for some of his actions on Friday evening, but no one can say that the man isn’t the ultimate content machine right now. He has everyone’s full attention, and that includes hardcore golf fans, casual golf fans and people watching golf for the first time ever. He and some folks in Ponte Vedra might not agree, but that’s very good for the sport. Controversy=good. Villains=good. Controversy involving villains=GOLD, Jerry, GOLD!

Andy Lyons
Viktor Hovland drives off 18th tee in Memorial.

The HOV train keeps rolling

For the first time in 20 rounds, Viktor Hovland shot an over-par round on Thursday at the Memorial. Finally, five straight weeks of golf caught up to the former U.S. Amateur winner.

Ehh, not quite. Hovland responded with a six-under 66 on Friday, matching the round of the day and putting him into a tie for eighth at four under. He made seven birdies, six of which came on the front nine, where he shot 30. Even more impressive. though, was his finish. After making his first bogey of the day at the 10th, Hovland held on tight the rest of the way, bouncing back with a birdie at 11 and then parring his way home. As we’ve seen so far this week, Muirfield Village has played much closer to a U.S. Open than to the Workday Charity Open. In U.S. Open conditions, pars are always good. Can he get into contention once again despite this being his sixth consecutive week of golf?

“I’m getting pretty tired,” Hovland said on Friday. “But it’s fun. I could get used to doing this every week.”

Sam Greenwood

RELATED: Tony Finau ‘inspired’ by Bryson DeChambeau, leads Memorial

Can Tiger make a run?

Based off the way he looked on Friday, and the way he sounded afterward, no, most likely not.

But we are talking about Tiger Woods, who will go out early on Saturday morning [with Koepka!] with fresh greens and ideal conditions on a course at which he’s won five times. That sounds like a recipe for a social-media explosion when he goes out in 31. Winning seems out of the question with a 12-shot deficit, but it’d make everybody take a nice deep breath if he could throw up a pair of under-par rounds on the weekend. If you recall, Woods was first in third-round scoring average in 2018, and this season, albeit in limited starts, he’s averaging 69.13 on Saturdays. He knows how to make a move. The question is, will he be feeling good and swinging freely in the morning? If so, we can expect a low one.

Stan Badz
Jon Rahm watches his tee shot on the 18th hole in the Memorial.

Another great leader board

We’ve been treated to some great leader boards since the restart, but some of them lose their luster when it’s a complete birdie fest. That is hardly the case so far at the Memorial, which has featured plenty of solid scores but also plenty of big ones too.

If the conditions remain as difficult as the first 36 holes on the weekend, it should be a special one. Generally speaking, the big boys rise to the top in those situations. As of now, Tony Finau (-9) and Jon Rahm (-8) are the prohibitive favorites, but reigning U.S. Open winner Gary Woodland (-6), Jason Day (-5) and Hovland (-4) are all right there. Dare we mention that Jordan Spieth is also at -4? Let’s not jinx it.

No, we didn’t forget about Ryan Palmer (-9), Chez Reavie (-6) and Luke List (-6), the underdogs looking to spoil the party. It’s supposed to be another beautiful summer weekend outside, but no one would judge you if you spent the majority of it on the couch.

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By Dave Shedloski
“A day like today I can get a lot of confidence from,” Jordan Spieth said Thursday after overcoming an early mishap to open the 45th Memorial Tournament with a two-under 70 at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Spieth’s uneven golf over the last few years makes one wonder if he truly feels this way or if he is trying to talk himself into such sentiment. For now, assume the former, because on a blustery morning in Dublin, Ohio, Spieth was relatively steady when a lot of his high-powered peers struggled. His score put him two off the lead after the morning wave wrapped up play. He deserved to feel buoyed by the effort.

The outing, which included an eagle, a double bogey, three birdies and a bogey, was especially important given the way he missed the cut last week at Muirfield Village in the Workday Charity Open, a result that dropped him out of the world top 60 for the first time since July 2013. Spieth hovered around the cutline throughout his second round but looked securely inside it with two holes remaining. But he played a poor bunker shot at the par-3 eighth hole, his 17th hole of the day, leading to a double bogey. He finished at even par; two under made the cut.

It was only the second time in eight starts at Muirfield Village that Spieth missed the cut, the other coming two years ago in the Memorial. Thursday’s 70 marked the sixth time he has begun the Memorial with a sub-par round, and he did it on a setup considerably more exacting than a week ago when the greens were slower and the rough more manageable.

Spieth eagled the par-5 11th hole, his second of the day, converting from four feet after an approach from 211 yards. But he gave it right back when he doubled the par-3 12th by coming up short in the water.

He shook it off quickly with a birdie at No. 13 from 12 feet. Key moment.

“Yeah, I was fine,” Spieth said of the miscue. “You go into a day like today, even when you know the golf course was going to be challenging, it’s almost like going into a major championship. You’ve just got to be a prepared for a little bit of everything, and it felt like I stayed really cool after 12 and then moved on and made a nice birdie on the next. Hit my best drive of the day, hit a wedge in there and made about a 12-footer. When that one went in, it was really nice. I felt like I was playing under-par golf. I felt like I hadn’t missed a shot, so it was nice to be under par and not still at even.

“Just knowing that the wind is going to pick up, you want to be a couple under making the turn there.”

Spieth was seen working on the putting green at Muirfield Village on Sunday as the final round of the Workday Charity Open was being played. But it was his ball-striking that earned him a score that was tied for the third-best in the morning wave. He lost strokes to the field on the greens Thursday, but he was 3.882 in strokes gained/tee to green, which ranked second in the field in the early going.

“I think putting is as challenging as anything in these conditions,” he said, noting how the wind and the increased speed of the greens from a week ago made things tricky.

He hit eight fairways and 12 greens and generally stayed out of trouble after the 12th. So, just maybe, he did have a reason to feel a little more confident about his game. He has worked hard to find a swing that is more reliable. It’s still a work in progress. But he is encouraged.

“I’ve actually made a lot of progress. It may not kind of look like that via results, but I’ve made a lot of progress in how I’m seeing sightlines, committing to lines. … All in all, now it’s just about trying to kind of find the timing element as I go up the bag. The rest of the game is starting to feel kind of back to normal, and I’m kind of piecing together my swing, but the timing element is what’s kind of left for me. That just comes from on-course reps.”

He’s had plenty of reps this truncated season. Workday was just his second weekend off in 12 starts. Reps matter. But reps like Thursday matter more.

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By Joel Beall
Fans were denied their dream pairing for the first two rounds of the Memorial. But the consolation prize isn’t too shabby.

After Brooks Koepka took a not-so-subtle shot at Bryson DeChambeau on Twitter last week, many were hoping to see the two bashers go head-to-head on Thursday and Friday at Muirfield Village. Alas, that heavyweight bout will have to wait.

Instead, Koepka is matched with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, highlighting one of four featured groups in Columbus.

Woods, a five-time Memorial winner, is making his first official start since February. McIlroy has four top 10s in eight starts at Muirfield Village, his best finish at T-4 in 2016, while Koepka is hoping for a bounce back from last week’s missed cut at the Workday Charity Open, also held at Muirfield Village.

As for DeChambeau, who won in his last start and has finished no worse than T-8 in his past seven outings, he will play with Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay. DeChambeau (2018) and Cantlay (2019) are past Memorial winners, with Morikawa coming off his second career title at the Workday.

The two other featured threesomes for the first two rounds of the Memorial are Phil Mickleson, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry and Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Dustin Johnson.

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By Ryan Herrington
With Tiger Woods announcing Thursday he was a yes to play next week at Muirfield Village, host Jack Nicklaus and organisers of the Memorial Tournament didn’t have much to sweat on Friday as they waited for the 5 p.m. cutoff for entering the field. And when the deadline passed, there was only good news to report.

For the third time in the six weeks since the PGA Tour resumed play, the top five golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking—Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson and Justin Thomas—will be competing. It’s the first time the Memorial has had the entire top five since 2016. Of the group, McIlroy has had the most success, with four top 10s.

Meanwhile, 26 of the 30 people who played in last year’s Tour Championship have committed, which is the most of any tournament since the restart. Among them is defending champion Patrick Cantlay and 2018 winner Bryson DeChambeau, who has had four top-10 finishes in four starts, including a win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, since the tour started playing again in June.

The most highly anticipated golfer of that group, however, is Woods, who will be playing in an event for the first time since the tour’s restart. Woods’ last official appearance on tour came at the Genesis Invitational in February, where he finished last among the players who made the cut

That he would make Memorial the event in which he’d stage his return made sense given his track record in the tournament. He’s a five-time champion, most recently in 2012. He has played in the tournament 17 times, with nine- top-10 finishes and 13 top 25s. He finished T-9 last year. His $5.3 million in career earnings at the Memorial is $2 million more than any other golfer. It is also the site of his worst round on the PGA Tour, when he shot a 13-over 85 while plagued by back issues in 2015.

A total of 133 players are in the field. Click here for the complete list. The total purse is $9.3 million.

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By Tod Leonard
Rickie Fowler looked sharp in the TaylorMade Driving Relief exhibition in May at Seminole Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., but hasn’t appeared to have a handle on his game since returning to authentic money-for-duffing competition with the PGA Tour’s restart.

On Saturday at Muirfield Village Golf Club, Fowler fired a six-under-par 66 amid sunny but breezy conditions and credited the effort, in part, to a sense of relief for making the cut for the second straight week after a few starts in which he was dismissed early.

He talked about feeling “freed up” after making it to the weekend in the Workday Charity Open. Which probably underscores the depths to which he has been struggling these last five weeks. Relief? For making a cut?

“I do feel like I am trending a bit now,” Fowler said after shooting his lowest score since the tour restart.

Trending beats treading water, which no one ever wants to do on a Saturday, and Fowler’s 66 tied for the second-lowest round of the day with Gary Woodland, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Sam Ryder and leader Justin Thomas. Fowler moved into the top-10 at 9-under 207 with a round included five birdies and an eagle at the par-5 seventh hole from 22 feet against one bogey.

With a pair of runner-up finishes in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, Fowler didn’t hesitate to make accommodations to his schedule for the two-week stay in Dublin, Ohio. “Once I saw this come up, I was all for it,” he said. “I changed my schedule around a little bit because I was originally going to start out playing four in a row. But being that the success and how much I do like Muirfield, I wanted to be here for two weeks.”

And now he appears to be taking advantage of the opportunity.

Last fall, Fowler, 31, left Butch Harmon because the famed swing coach was cutting back on his work and joined forces with John Tillery. His swing changes haven’t quite congealed, which undoubtedly has led to some inconsistency and his fall to 31st in the world rankings. Fowler is undaunted, however, and days like Saturday, when winds made Muirfield Village trickier, offer promise.

“It’s been a work in progress,” he said, “and for me early on there was stuff that was tough because I feel like my sequencing was a bit off, and it was almost some old tendencies I needed to get back from how my lower body used to work better earlier in my career, and so almost like reprogramming. Yeah, we’re heading in the right direction, starting to see things pay off, but still got a ways to go.”

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By Brian Wacker
When the PGA Tour announced last week that the John Deere Classic, set to be played July 9-12, had been cancelled due to complications with holding the event while following local COVID-19 restrictions, tour officials said they intended to replace it with another tournament. That new event will be held at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, and sponsored by Workday, sources have told Golf Digest.

Muirfield Village is also home to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament, which is scheduled to be played July 16-19, the week after the John Deere, meaning the Ohio course will host tournaments in back-to-back weeks. Playing a second tournament at the same venue during the open date will allow the Tour to take advantage of infrastructure already in place and reduce player travel to further maintain a “bubble” as the PGA Tour resumes its season during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the Memorial is an invitational and is tentatively slated to have spectators in attendance, the still-to-be-named tournament preceding it will be played as a full-field event with 156 players and will be played without fans, according to sources.

The Associated Press first reported the news on the venue and sponsor on Tuesday. The PGA Tour did not comment when asked about the status of the event.

Workday was a presenting sponsor at last year’s Desert Classic at La Quinta before that event became the American Express. The company also sponsors multiple players on Tour, including Phil Mickelson, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker and Matt Fitzpatrick.

Other locations that were under consideration for the new event, according to sources, included nearby Akron, which hosts the Senior Players the following month; Detroit, where the Rocket Mortgage Classic is scheduled to be played the week before the Deere date; Lexington, Ky., home to the Barbasol Championship, which was canceled last month; and Ponte Vedra Beach, where the Tour is headquartered.

An official announcement from the Tour is expected to be made this week.

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