With 22 gamers inside three of the lead going into the final spherical of the Memorial Tournament offered by Workday, most are watching Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy (70), considered one of three co-leaders with Si Woo Kim (71) and David Lipsky (72), is clearly first amongst equals.
McIlroy chasing first win right here
A 23-time PGA TOUR winner and the one participant to win the FedExCup thrice, McIlroy has needed to embrace dialing it again off the tee at Muirfield Village, the place pinch factors within the fairways take driver out of his palms.
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In baseball phrases, he’s like a fastball specialist all of a sudden falling again on a mixture of curveballs, sinkers, and off-speed stuff.
So far, he’s succeeding in his twelfth begin at Muirfield Village, the place his finest is a T4 in 2016.
“The big thing for me around here with how penal it is off the tee is just getting the ball in play,” he mentioned.
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“So, throttling back, hitting a lot of 3-woods, irons off tees. Using the driver sort of sporadically.”
Viktor Hovland (69) and Wells Fargo Championship winner Wyndham Clark (70) appear like essentially the most harmful contenders in a bunch of 5 gamers at 5 beneath par, only one off the lead.
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Unlike many, Hovland has but to make worse than bogey this week.
Patrick Cantlay (74) and Hideki Matsuyama (75), who’ve three Memorial titles between them, had been solely two again, as had been Keegan Bradley, who made the lower on the quantity however shot the very best spherical of the day (65), and Collin Morikawa (68).
Strong PGA TOUR discipline difficult
But it’s world No. 3 McIlroy who finds himself together with his clearest look at the trophy. No. 1 Scottie Scheffler shot 68 and can be 5 again, taking part in Sunday with No. 2 Jon Rahm (74, 4 again). They’ll go off at 10:55 a.m., two hours and 40 minutes forward of the leaders. Surely they’ve too many individuals forward of them.
McIlroy doesn’t need to make up any floor, which on this course is an efficient factor.
“Just hanging in there,” he mentioned of his recreation plan.
He hasn’t received on the PGA TOUR since THE CJ CUP in South Carolina final October, and has been clawing his manner again from a mini-slump that noticed him miss cuts at THE PLAYERS Championship and the Masters Tournament. He did little greater than make it to the weekend at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow, the place he’s received thrice.
But probably the most gifted gamers within the recreation signaled he is perhaps on his manner again with a top-10 end at the current PGA Championship, and pronounced his recreation in significantly better form nonetheless at the Memorial. He might merely be due. He additionally allowed that he has “quite a bit of experience” in high-pressure conditions, in contrast to a handful of others on the leaderboard.
Then once more, he mentioned within the subsequent breath, Muirfield Village is taking part in so arduous as to wreck anybody’s possibilities with one misstep.
“This golf course makes you a little uncomfortable,” McIlroy mentioned. “Everyone’s going to be feeling like that.”
Added Bradley, whose 65 included a bogey on 18, “There’s zero room for error out here.”
Almost each participant has already succumbed to both a catastrophe or a rocky stretch. McIlroy triple-bogeyed the final gap of his first spherical, and within the third spherical Cantlay tripled the sixth gap whereas Matsuyama had three bogeys and a triple in 5 holes.
He was additionally in some discomfort together with his neck.
“Mid-round it was difficult, it kind of stiffened up a little bit,” Matsuyama said through a translator, “but at the end of the round it started feeling good and I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I need to practice a little bit before I get treatment, but half as much as usual.” (He hit a couple of lefthanded, so clearly was feeling higher.)
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