Highlights from the first round of the Memorial tournament - Part 1
The first round of $6.2-million Memorial tournament wrapped up on Thursday at the par-72 Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
Here is a quick recap for the first round, which has Rory McIlroy and Chris Riley in the lead.
The duo chose to tee-off from the back and compiled the course lowest score on a sunny morning. McIlroy reeled seven birdies against one bogey, whereas Riley netted eight birdies against two bogeys. Both had a different birdie
count, but one aspect of their game-play had them bound together and that was their short game, which was better than the average field.
When talking to the press about the opening round McIlroy said, “Got off to a little bit of a scrappy start on my front nine, which was the back nine. Got it up-and-down a few times just to keep myself around 1- or 2-under par
and then found a few birdies on the way in, which helped me - which was the bulk of my birdies. Yeah, happy with 66, a great way to start the tournament.”
Meanwhile, Riley was surprised at his game that was not tested for nine years. The 37-year-old from San Diego said that he was shocked when he saw the results of the first round by the end of the day.
Another duo, Josh Teater and Chris DiMarco, sat on the third spot of the leaderboard. The 32-year-old pro from Kentucky, Teater teed-off from the back to make use of the soft greens. He aced the par-5 11th and simultaneously
birdied the next three holes before dropping two consecutive shots. The American walked towards the front and wrapped it with a score of 67 with the help of three more birdies.
Similar fate was met by DiMarco, who was brilliant on the front, owing to his powerful wedge game, but messed up on the back. The player reeled five birdies in the front and three at the back against three bogeys.
A nine-way tie was seen for the fifth place, which included PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, Rickie Fowler, world number eight Steve Stricker, world number 14 Dustin Johnson, winner of Frys.com Open Rocco Mediate, Rickie Barnes, Matt
Bettencourt, Stewart Cink, Bryce Molder and Scott Stallings.
Barnes teed-off from the back and wrapped the Thursday round with a score of 68 with the help of five birdies and one bogey. On the other hand, Stallings teed-off from the front, fired three back-to-back birdies starting from the
par-4 sixth, and reeled four more on the back. This edginess set him into some breathtaking action on the greens and he occupied a spot among the top guns of the tournament.
Article continued in Part 2...
Tags: