The Memorial, Round 1
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By PGATOUR.COM Staff
OPENING ROUND COMPLETE (6:55 p.m.): The first round of the Memorial Tournament is complete and without a doubt the story of the day was Luke Donald's 64 and his 20 putts. Donald has had a solid year with four top 10s, including a tie for second at the Verizon Heritage, where he closed with rounds of 65 and 66 on the weekend. Today, however, was an example of how good Donald can be when he has the putter rolling the way he does, especially on a course like Muirfield Village with its wide fairways.
The other story of the day was of course Tiger Woods, who is trying to win here for the fourth time in his career. He bogeyed the last hole to finish with a 3-under 69, but he showed the best accuracy we've seen from him all year with 13 of 14 fairways hit and 13 of 18 greens in regulation. One side note to his accuracy off the tee: Woods, who has been testing various drivers of late, added some loft to his this week, bringing it up to 10 degrees. That, at least in part, helped him find the short grass a lot more often than he has this year and now he's in good position heading into Round 2. -- Brian Wacker
MARINO MOVING FORWARD (6:22 p.m.): Steve Marino didn't allow himself to dwell on Sunday's playoff loss at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. And why should he?
Marino is playing extremely well this year. After posting his third top-10 on Sunday, the University of Virginia product ranks 22nd in the FedExCup and he keeps getting closer and closer to what would be his first PGA TOUR win.
Could it come this week at the Memorial? Well, the 68 he shot Thursday at Muirfield Village was his ninth straight sub-70 round and left him tied for sixth, four strokes off the pace set by Luke Donald.
"I'm just excited about playing," Marino said. "I'm playing well. It definitely sucks to lose the playoff, but that's last week. We've got a whole new week this week and a great golf course and a great tournament."
Marino played in the afternoon wave on Thursday as the wind began to dry the course out in earnest after Wednesday's downpour. He was well aware of Donald's 64 but worked hard to focus on his own game.
"I saw it, but I didn't really pay attention to it," said Marino, who took just 25 putts. "That was a hell of a round. I wasn't really expecting anybody else to put up a score like that. I just wanted to go out and do the best I could. I'm real happy with that." -- Helen Ross
GOOD DAY FOR DAY (6 p.m.): A week after shooting three rounds of 65 on his way to a fourth-place finish at Colonial, Australia's Jason Day continues to go low with seven birdies through his first 15 holes. He's still got the two toughest holes on the course to go in Nos. 17 and 18, but as of now Day is just one shot off the lead as the opening round winds down. Follow his last few holes live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker
WOODS IN WITH A 69 (5:30 p.m.): Tiger Woods just finished off a round of 3-under 69 and though he ended with a bogey on the 18th, he was in good spirits, saying he now knows what it's like for Fred Funk every week. Woods was talking about playing from the fairway -- something he hasn't done often this season.
Woods missed just one fairway today and as a result was able to hit 13 greens in regulation. That leaves Woods just five shots back of the lead and in good position going into Round 2. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER UPDATE (5:10 p.m.): The first round is winding down at Muirfield Village and Tiger Woods has moved a little closer to the lead with birdies on each of his last two holes. That brings Woods to 4 under on the day as he cleans up the 17th hole right now.
Woods still hasn't missed a fairway and continues to stripe it from the fairway, too, having hit 13 of 17 greens in regulation. Both of those numbers rank in the top 5 in the field. -- Brian Wacker
YELLOW JACKET PRIDE (4:50 p.m.): Former Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Troy Matteson and Nicholas Thompson -- along with Johnson Wagner -- opened at 3-under 69. All three players made their first appearance at the Memorial Tournament a year ago with Wagner the only one to have made the cut.
Matteson shot rounds of 76-81 last year, while Thompson had rounds of 75-83. Another Georgia Tech standout, David Duval, opened with a 1-under 71. Duval is making his 12th start at the Memorial, with five top-4 finishes (1995-T2, 1996-2nd, 1998-3rd, 2000-T3, 2002-T4). -- John Bush
TOUGH DAY FOR FAX (4:35 p.m.): James Driscoll wasn't the only one who had a rough day on Thursday. Brad Faxon didn't have a 10 on a hole the way Driscoll did, but he did endure a difficult four-hole stretch that added up to seven strokes over par.
After making a bogey on the eighth, Faxon found the water on his approach shot on No. 9 before making a double bogey. Following a bogey on No. 10, he added a triple bogey at the 11th after needing six shots to reach the green on the 562-yard par-5 hole.
One more triple bogey on the 11th hole and Faxon finished with an 83 and is in last place. It's been a difficult year for Faxon, who has made just two cuts. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER'S FIRST BOGEY (4:15 p.m.): Tiger Woods had about as clean a round going as possible with 10 straight fairways hit and 10 of 13 greens in regulation. However, that didn't prevent him from three-putting on No. 13 for his first bogey of the day.
After Woods' approach on the 454-yard 13th landed 28 1/2-feet from the hole, Woods ran his first putt 5 feet by. He then jammed it past the hole on the high side, never touching the cup before cleaning up from about 10 inches away. That drops Woods to 2 under on the day and six shots off the current lead. -- Brian Wacker
NOT-SO-PERFECT 10 (3:55 p.m.): In one hole, James Driscoll wiped out all five birdies he had during the first round. That's because Driscoll made a sextuple-bogey on the 13th hole. For those of you scoring at home, that's a 6-over 10.
After hitting his first two tee balls out of bounds to the right, he hit another one to the right, but was forced to take a drop. After that, Drsicoll's approach went over the back of the green. He chipped on and proceeded to two-putt from 6 feet.
Driscoll finished his back-nine in 43 -- after a front-nine 34 -- and ended up with two other bogeys, a double bogey and five birdies. -- Brian Wacker
FAST AND FURIOUS (3:40 p.m.): One of the topics of discussion among the players this week is the change in green speed from last week. Colonial has some of the slowest greens on the PGA TOUR, while Muirfield Village has some of its quickest.
"I hadn't played Colonial since 2004. The course was in great shape, but greens were quite soft and reasonably slow for what we usually play on," first-round leader Luke Donald said. "These, on the other hand, are extremely quick, quickest we play all year.
"They might not have as much slope as Augusta, but on a flat putt, they're probably quicker than Augusta. It was quite a bit of an adjustment. I didn't spend too much time on the greens. I was home in Chicago Monday, Tuesday, and came in early in the morning on Wednesday."
Not that it mattered to Donald -- he took just 20 putts (more below). -- Brian Wacker
DAY MOVES TO 4 UNDER (3:21 p.m.) -- It appears that Jason Day's struggles from the 2008 are long in the rearview mirror.
Day, who finished a mere one shot out of a playoff last week in the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, birdied four of his first five holes on Thursday at the Memorial.
Day's confidence, especially with the putter, has never been better. He used a scant 107 putts last week at Colonial, which ranked fourth in the field. He started his round Thursday with four one-putts in his first five holes.
Day started the season without a PGA TOUR card after making just 13 cuts in his rookie season of 2008, but the 21-year-old Aussie is only one good finish away from securing a card for 2010. -- Ryan Smithson
TIGER MAKES THE TURN (3:13 p.m.): Tiger Woods is halfway home on his round today, having just made the turn in 3 under with three birdies and no bogeys. Woods has shown the kind of accuracy we haven't seen from him all season, hitting all seven fairways on the front and 7 of 9 greens in regulation. He's also taken just 13 putts so far.
Granted, Muirfield Village isn't exactly known for tight fairways, but on the year Tiger is hitting just under 57 percent of his fairways and less than 64 percent of his greens in regulation -- both of which rank well into the 100s on the PGA TOUR. -- Brian Wacker
• Follow Tiger on the back nine live with Shot Tracker by clicking here.
STRICKER IN STRIDE (3 p.m.): Steve Stricker, winner of last week's Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, opened with a 2-under 70 today. He's never won in back-to-back weeks, but has had some pretty good results. See the chart below for more. -- John Bush
| Steve Stricker: Results following a victory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DONALD CONTINUES TO LEAD (2:45 p.m.): Should Luke Donald's lead hold up, it would represent the fourth time he has held the lead or a share of the lead after 18 holes in a PGA TOUR event. The others included the 2006 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (T7), 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii (T2) and the 2008 Honda Classic (2nd).
It also has a chance to match the largest first-round lead of any on TOUR this year. Camilo Villegas led by three at the Buick Invitational, Bo Van Pelt by two at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and Tiger Woods by two at the Quail Hollow Championship. None of the three were able to turn that lead into a win, though.
This is Donald's sixth career start at Muirfield Village with four made cuts and his lone top-10 finish coming a year ago (T6). Donald earned his first invitation to the Memorial in 2000 (finishing T51 as an amateur) as a result of winning the 1999 Jack Nicklaus Award, given annually to the nation's top collegiate golfer.
Currently 24th on the FedExCup points list, Donald is making his 12th start of the season. He's yet to win, but does have eight top-25 finishes among his previous 11 starts. A runner-up finish at the Verizon Heritage is his best showing among four top-10 finishes. -- John Bush
ROUGH FINISH FOR DUVAL (2:13 p.m.) -- David Duval had an adventurous round of 71 that included five birdies on the front but two double bogeys that led to a 40 on the back nine.
Turns out, standing in Duval's gallery was a tad adventurous, too, as he hit a fan at the 10th hole on Thursday. The errant shot drew blood as it "kicked kind of funny" off the spectator's head.
Duval, as you might imagine, was a tad unnerved by the incident.
"You give him a signed golf ball, like that really matters at that point," he said. "You're worried he might throw it at you. It's like, 'Great, I got hit in the head and got a golf ball.'
"It doesn't happen every day: I don't think you ever want to. It hurts." -- Helen Ross
Below is a look at Duval's scorecard from today:
BREAKING DOWN DONALD'S 64 (2 p.m.): Luke Donald needed just 20 putts in shooting his first-round 64. That's just two off the PGA TOUR record held by seven players, the last time coming earlier this year at the World Golf Championships-CA Championship, when Ken Duke needed just 18 putts in the third round.
If Donald continues to have a hot putter, he might be able to break the TOUR record for fewest putts in all four rounds, currently held by David Frost, who had 92 putts at the 2005 MCI Heritage.
Donald holed out twice from off the green and had one-putts on 12 other holes. Amazingly, just five of Donald's 20 putts came from outside 10 feet (he made two of them, at the 10th and 16th holes). Here's the length of each putt: -- Mike McAllister
| Luke Donald's putting in Round 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CHECKING IN ON THE CHAMP (1:45 p.m.): Kenny Perry is looking to become just the fourth player to successfully defend a title this year and so far he's off to a slow, but steady start with pars on each of his first four holes -- despite hitting all of his fairways and 2 of 4 greens in regulation.
Should Perry win, it would also be his second victory of the season after he captured the FBR Open at the end of February.
The other players to successfully defend this year are Phil Mickelson (Northern Trust Open), Tiger Woods (Arnold Palmer Invitational) and Zach Johnson (Valero Texas Open). -- Brian Wacker
TIGER UPDATE (1:30 p.m.): Tiger Woods has his first birdie of the day, rolling in a 27-footer on the par-4 second hole to get to 1 under. Woods is through three holes and looking to become the first four-time winner of the Memorial Tournament.
In Woods' three wins here, he's twice opened with 68s to go with a 71 in 2000. In each of his last five Memorials, however, it's been hit or miss as far as the opening round is concerned. Three of his last five trips here have ended with Woods finishing third twice and tied for fourth. See the chart below for more. -- Brian Wacker
| Tiger Woods: Last five Memorial Tournaments | ||||||||||||||||||
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TOUGH FINISH (1:15 p.m.): The 17th and 18th holes here at Muirfield Village continue to claim one victim after another today with Steve Stricker being the latest -- he had a round of 4 under going until back-to-back bogeys resulted in a 2-under 70.
Currently, the 478-yard, par-4 17th is playing as the second toughest hole on the course, with the 444-yard, par-4 18th the most difficult. Together, they've combined to yield just seven birdies compared to 38 bogeys so far. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER UPDATE (12:50 p.m.): Tiger Woods, one of only two players to win the Memorial Tournament three times (Kenny Perry is the other), just teed off with Zach Johnson and Ernie Els. Woods could only manage a par, however, after hitting it to 15 feet on his approach shot. Click here to follow Woods' group live with Shot Tracker.
About the same time on No. 9, Jim Furyk was finishing off his round of 67 with a par of his own. Furyk, who started on the back nine, vaulted up the leaderboard with three straight birdies on Nos. 6, 7 and 8. Furyk had seven birdies -- and two bogeys -- in all.
None of this should come as any great surprise given Furyk's track record here -- he won this tournament in 2002 and on his career has finished in the top 10 four times. -- Brian Wacker
NOT SO FAST (12:35 p.m.): Today was unfortunately a tale of two nines for David Duval. After opening with a 31 on the front with four birdies in a five-hole stretch at one point, Duval struggled on the back, shooting a 40 over his final nine holes, which included a pair of double bogeys.
Duval began the back nine with a bogey at No. 10, where he pushed his tee shot well to the right, forcing him to lay up short of the green. One hole later, things got worse when Duval's second shot on the par-5 11th struck a spectator. Duval made par on the hole, but would go on to make two double bogeys and just one birdie the rest of the way. -- Brian Wacker
STRICKER STRIKES AGAIN (12:20 p.m.): Jerry Kelly might be right in intimating that once his good pal Steve Stricker finally got his first win of the season out of the way, more would follow.
Coming off a win at Colonial last week, Stricker is 4 under on his round today and near the top of the leaderboard. Last week marked Stricker's victory of the 2009 season after five top-10 finishes prior to that.
Does that make Stricker one of the favorites not only here, but at the U.S. Open in two weeks? Kelly thinks so and it's hard to argue otherwise. In case you were wondering, Stricker finished in a tie for 16th the last time the U.S. Open was held at Bethpage Black. Three other times, Stricker has finished in the top six at a U.S. Open, including a pair of fifth-place finishes at the Olympic Club in 1998 and Pinehurst No. 2 in 1999. -- Brian Wacker
DONALD RIDES HOT PUTTER TO LEAD (12:06 p.m.): Luke Donald has added two more consecutive birdies, bringing his total for the round to nine. Such a binge should come as no surprise, though, after looking at his putting stats for 2009.
Donald ranks first in total putting, putting average, putting from inside 5 and 10 feet and putts made per event over 10 feet. He's second in putting from 5 to 15 feet, as well, and ranks in the top 10 in four other putting categories.
He's looking to set a personal best at Muirfield Village, too. Donald has only shot in the 60s twice in 18 previous rounds at the Memorial Tournament and last year's tie for sixth is by far his best finish (by 29 spots).
Donald's Memorial scoring average prior to today was 72.44. -- Helen Ross
Below is a look at Donald's scorecard from today:
DUVAL CONTINUES HIS CLIMB BACK (11:45 a.m.): David Duval a few weeks ago candidly said that he still felt like he was one of the 10 best players in the world. Right now, he's doing his best to back that up with a round of 3 under that has him near the top of the leaderboard as he plays his final few holes.
At one point this morning, Duval birdied 5 of 7 holes on his way to a front-nine 31. Since then, he's given some strokes back with a bogey at No. 10 and a double bogey at No. 12, where he hit his tee shot into the back bunker and then struggled to get it in the hole from there on the par 3.
"My confidence is catching up with how good my golf game is," Duval said at the Valero Texas Open. "I feel like somewhere late on the West Coast is where I really started feeling 100 percent comfortable again. I'm starting to remember all the good ones and no bad ones ... and all of the sudden my confidence is getting better."
Duval has a long road back, but his scores are also getting better. -- Brian Wacker
DONALD ON A TEAR (11:30 a.m.): Luke Donald isn't going to break the course record today at the Memorial, but the round he has going right now is shaping up to be pretty spectacular with birdies on eight of his last nine holes -- including six in a row at one point -- to get to 8 under and the top of the leaderboard with a few holes left in his round.
The TOUR record is eight straight birdies -- held by Bob Goalby, Fuzzy Zoeller, Dewey Arnette, Edward Fryatt, J.P. Hayes and Jerry Kelly. The feat has only been done twice since the turn of the century with Hayes in 2002 and Kelly in 2003.
Donald's streak is one off the best of the season. Ryuji Imada and Brian Davis each have made seven in a row -- the former coming in the first round of the Mercedes-Benz Championship and the latter in round four of the 50th Bob Hope Classic.
The Memorial Tournament record is seven straight made in 2007 by Mark Wilson.
This is Donald's sixth trip to Muirfield Village -- his best finish was a tie for sixth last year -- and already he's heading toward his best-ever score here. In those six appearances, Donald has broken 70 just twice and he once shot an 80 in 2003. -- Brian Wacker and Helen Ross
TIGER'S ROOTING INTEREST (11:15 a.m.): The NBA Finals begin tonight at 9 p.m. and at least one interested observer may have to TIVO the game between the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers.
Tiger Woods, who grew up in southern California but now lives in Orlando, has an 8:03 a.m. ET tee time at Muirfield Village on Friday morning. He has a keen interest in the game, but needs to be fresh for his second round date with Zach Johnson and Ernie Els.
"Obviously, I live in Orlando and root for the Magic, but I'm from L.A," said Woods, who tees off at 12:43 p.m. ET today. "Grew up watching Magic and Kareem and Worthy and Byron and all those teams. Before that, McAdoo and Nixon, you name it. It is hard. It is hard. But I'm from L.A."
Woods has gotten to know a lot of NBA players and he's impressed with their work ethic. That's high praise coming from the world No. 1 who attended several of the Magic's games last week.
"No one has any idea," Woods said. "I remember the countless hours I spent with Michael in the gym feeding him balls. He would just shoot all night, and he thought that, yeah, he just showed up to the game and off he went and scored 45 and went home. You don't realize what he did to prepare for that.
"I think that's something that getting to know these guys, it's something I appreciate a lot more. Watching them play right there on the floor, it's just phenomenal with be the banging, and how physical it is. These guys and their strength and the balance that they have." -- Helen Ross
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