Scheffler and Schauffele come in hot
COVER PHOTO: World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler sinks his birdie putt from 18 inches away on No. 18. He finished the round at -5 in second place. Picture by Andy Evans/Columbus Wired.
The top two golfers in the world didn’t skip a beat when it came to ending on a high note after their first round of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday.
Scottie Scheffler (No. 1) and Xander Schauffele (No. 2) both matched their first-round bests at Muirfield Village Golf Club with a 67 and 68, respectively.
Scheffler had six birdies and one bogey, going bogey-free on the back nine with four birdies, including No. 18.
Schauffele went bogey-free for the entire round, knocking in four birdies.
“Yeah, I think it’s always great coming here to play,” Scheffler said. “The golf course is always in great shape. I can’t remember a year when the greens weren’t really good and the fairways weren’t in great shape and the rough was high. They always do a great job here, agronomy-wise, getting the course going and it’s great to be able to play in the tournament on Jack (Nicklaus’) golf course, as well.”
Schauffele said he feels he’s in a good spot and credited his short game with being his savior.
“I’m happy with how I played, with how I stuck in there and really happy my short game bailed me out on a day that could have been a lot worse.”
Heavy rain on Wednesday night softened up the course which, according to Scheffler, had been playing pretty firm during the practice rounds. Thanks to the rain, though, it not only made the course a little more manageable but (not thankfully) produced some mud balls throughout the round.
“I was surprised how firm it was when we first got here on Tuesday,” Scheffler said. “As long as the rain holds off the rest of the week with the winds we’re supposed to get, the golf course is going to be really, really challenging.”
Schauffele faced a challenge on par-5, No. 5, when his ball found the middle of the fairway but also found a chunk of slop on it, which typically doesn’t happen in the fairway.
He knew his shot would come out funny because of the mud glopped onto the ball. And with the wind whipping at times up to plus-15 miles per hour, he knew aiming where he normally would, wouldn’t work out. Instead, he aimed directly at the green and his second shot found the right fairway bunker 35 yards to the hole.
“The lie was fine, it was just a little bit wet, which is actually kind of nice for a long, bunker shot. I kind of just jerked at it a little bit knowing that (going) short is going to plug in the bunker and that’s going to be an auto bogey.”
His next shot sailed the green and went into the back rough but he was able to put his pitch from there to within 10 feet of the hole and knocked down the putt for the par.
“(I got) lucky it didn’t go in the water and it was in the rough and got up-and-down.”
Scheffler also found himself in a pinch on No. 5 when his ball landed on the right side of the fairway but also found some mud to go along with it.
“(The mud) was on the top to the right side of the ball and it was pretty aggressive,” he said. “I aimed it 60 yards from where the ball ended up (and) it’s one of those deals where I hit it in the middle of the fairway and I basically - on that hole specifically - I did not have a good shot to hit because of the mud on the ball and you have absolutely no control over where it’s going to go.”
Scheffler’s second shot ended up in the rough to the left of the creek about 90 yards to the hole. His third shot went over the green and landed in the rough 26 feet from the cup. He duffed his fourth shot onto the fringe and with 14 feet remaining for the par, he put his fifth shot nearly four feet past the hole. He would hole out the putt for his only bogey of the round.
“(In) hindsight, maybe I could’ve aimed it down the middle of the creek (to) just see where it would have went and maybe it goes in one of the fairways. But at the time, that didn’t really seem like a good idea. So I felt we tried to do the best we can to kind of get it up there somewhere and, yeah, you just can’t control it.”
Scheffler finished the round in second place while Schauffele is in a four-way tie for third.
Schauffele’s tee time for Friday is set for 1:30 p.m. alongside reigning Memorial champion Viktor Hovland, while Scheffler and playing mate Ludvig Åberg, are the next group off ten minutes later.
Åberg is currently tied with Schauffele while Hovland is tied with several others in seventh place at -3.