DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Ben Griffin resumed the great play that brought him his first individual PGA Tour victory last week, hitting two shots in the water and still posting a 7-under 65 on Thursday in the Memorial on a course with rough as dense as a U.S. Open.
Griffin isn't taking victory laps after winning at Colonial. He just kept making birdies, along with an eagle on the par- 5 seventh hole with a 3-wood into 12 feet. He led by two shots over Collin Morikawa, with Max Homa another stroke behind.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler wasn't at his best and still managed a 70, his 19th consecutive tournament in which he opened with a round par.
Griffin was playing so well that his two water balls — on the par-5 11th and par-3 12th — only led to bogeys when such mistakes punished so many other players.
“Yeah, a couple water balls — really need to go to the range and work on my game to clean that stuff up,” Griffin said with a laugh.
He knew this was a good one. Muirfield Village was soft enough from rain the past two days that good scores were available provided shots came from the fairway, and not from rough that Justin Thomas had said was comparable to what they will face at Oakmont in the U.S. Open.
“Basically a U.S. Open we're playing," Keegan Bradley said. “I'm going to be playing back-to-back U.S. Opens here. But the course is very fair, setup nice. Just a tough test.”
The numbers bear that out, whether it was only 13 players who broke par in a gentle wind, or the eight players who made triple bogey on seven of the holes at Muirfield Village.
Griffin set the pace early by going out in 31, and then ran into a few problems with the water. He tried to reach the green on the 11th, came up short and into the water, and missed a 10-foot par putt. On the 12th, his tee shot bounced back down the slope into the water. He saved bogey with a 6-foot putt.
But what a finish — a 15-foot birdie on the par-3 16th, a 12-foot birdie on the 17th and holing out from just over 50 feet up the ridge on the 18th for a third straight birdie.
“It was an incredible day,” Griffin said. “Kind of building on what I was doing last week, making a ton of birdies, staying aggressive. This is one of the toughest golf courses we play on tour and you’ve got to be on your game to make birdies and give yourself a lot of looks.”
Shane Lowry played alongside Griffin and had a 69, one of only six players to break 70. It might not have felt that good the way Griffin was playing.
“I told him when we finished, ‘Keep it going, things will turn around for you pretty soon,’” Lowry said with a smile. "He pretty much holed everything he looked at today. It was good. We bounced off each other, we all played really nicely.
“My 3 under doesn’t look that great beside his 7 under, but 3 under is a good score out there on this course,” he said. “It’s pretty difficult.”
Homa keeps trying to piece together his game that allowed him to reach No. 10 in the world when he played the Memorial last year. Now he is at No. 87 and faces a long week — a tough test at Muirfield Village, and then 36 holes of U.S. Open qualifying Monday.
“I told my coach last night this is the best my swing has felt in a really long time. Then the whole game kind of felt like that,” Homa said. “I didn't need to shoot a low number to validate that, but it just feels nice.”
Canada's Nick Taylor had one of the 10 double bogeys — two others made triple bogey — on the par-3 12th, but he rallied with two birdies on his last three holes for a 69.
His fellow Canadians Taylor Pendrith, Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes each finished the day with a 73, while Adam Hadwin was well back of the leaders with a 4-over 76.
Scheffler won the PGA Championship and tried to get as much rest as he could ahead of Colonial, where he still tied for fourth. He worked a little more in the days heading into Memorial and spent too much time in the rough and battling for pars.
He does that well, too, dropping only two shots despite hitting six of the 14 fairways and twice failing to convert birdie chances on the par 5s on the back nine.
The last time he was over par to start a tournament was the U.S. Open last year.
“I felt like I scored pretty well. If I want to keep doing that, I’ll have to be a little sharper the next few days,” Scheffler said. “But overall, a good job posting a score. Yeah, 2 under on this place any day is pretty good.”
No need telling that to Thomas (80) or Daniel Berger (81). And then there was Adam Scott, who was 7 over for his round through six holes. He played even par the rest of the way for a 79.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press
