Washington (AFP) – Nick Taylor conjured four birdies without a bogey in a four-under-par 68 on Friday to pull into a tie for the lead with Ben Griffin in the US PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Taylor, who claimed his fifth PGA title at the Sony Open this year, navigated rain-soaked Muirfield Village with little real trouble on the way to a 36-hole total of seven-under par 137.
“The iron game was very, very sharp,” Taylor said. “Putting, made a bunch of nice five-, six-footers on that back nine for par.” Overnight leader Griffin, coming off his second win of the season at Colonial last week, had one bogey and one birdie in an even-par 71 to maintain a share of the lead. The leading duo were two strokes in front of American Akshay Bhatia, who carded a 69, with world number one Scottie Scheffler three adrift after his second straight 70 for 140.
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“I think everyone would probably say it was kind of a grind,” Griffin said. “Fortunately, having a later tee time, I didn’t have to battle the elements quite as much as some of the early groups. But a day like today when it’s really wet, I think hitting it in the rough is just even more penal. The ball just kind of goes straight to the bottom with the moisture, and then when there’s moisture, it’s harder to get to the ball down in the rough. So I had some very tricky lies.”
“I got some good breaks on a couple holes where I was in the rough and was able to get it up to the green. So all in all, coming off of yesterday where I made just about everything I looked at, you can’t do that every day when you’re playing golf.” Taylor coped admirably, getting things moving with a 24-foot birdie putt at the fourth hole. He added a two-foot birdie at the eighth and rolled in a 20-foot at the ninth. He grabbed his final birdie at the 13th.
“The nice thing was for most of the day my speed was very good, so it was a lot of tap-in pars if I wasn’t making birdie,” he said. “It was nice to keep it as simple as possible.” Bhatia put himself in contention in the signature event hosted by Jack Nicklaus with five birdies. “I felt like this was the best my iron play has been, ever,” Bhatia said. “I mean, I hit two flagsticks today and then felt like pretty much anytime where my caddie told me to hit it, I was literally hitting it there. So that was really nice.”
Scheffler called his two-under effort a “solid day” despite a double bogey at the 10th. “I had some good looks on the front nine that I didn’t hole, but on the back I rolled it really nice,” Scheffler said. After his double bogey at the 10th — where he was in the rough off the tee and finally three-putted from 43 feet — Scheffler responded with birdies at the 11th and 12th. He finished the day alone in fourth, one stroke in front of Sam Burns, Shane Lowry, and Jordan Spieth. Burns climbed the leaderboard with an impressive seven-under par 65, while Ireland’s Lowry posted an even par 72, and Spieth carded a 69.
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