Dublin, Ohio — Ben Griffin brought his first individual PGA Tour victory last week, resuming his amazing play, hitting two shots in the water and posting a 7-under 65 at the memorial on a course as dense as the American Open on Thursday.
Griffin has not won a winning lap after winning the Colonial. He just kept making birdies, turning 3wood to 12 feet with Eagle in the par 5 Seven Hole. He led with two shots from Morikawa, with Max Homa backing another stroke.
Defending champion Scotty Scheffler is not at his best, managing the 70 tournament, the 70th consecutive year, and he opened in the round with par.
Griffin was playing so well that his two waterballs led to bogeys when such mistakes punished many other players in par 5 11th and par 3 12th.
“Yeah, some waterballs – you really need to go into range and clean up something like that to work on my game,” Griffin said with a laugh.
Muirfield Village has been soft enough from the rain for the past two days, so shots from the fairway are conditioned on shots from the fairway, not from rough, which is comparable to what Justin Thomas faces at Oakmont at the US Open.
“It’s basically the US open where we play,” Keegan Bradley said. “We’re going to play back-to-back here. But the course is very fair and a good setup. It’s just a tough test.”
The numbers have it, whether it was 13 players who broke the par with the gentle breeze or eight players who made triple bogeys in seven holes in Muirfield Village.
Griffin sets his pace faster by going to 31 and encounters several issues with water. He tried to reach the green on the 11th, getting into the water, short and missing a 10-foot putt. On the 12th, his tee shot brought the slope back into the water. He saved Bogie with a 6-foot putt.
But he had a pretty good finish – par 3. He made a hole with a 15-foot birdie in 16th, a 12-foot birdie on the 17th, and a third straight birdie from above on the 18th.
“It was an incredible day,” Griffin said. “I’ve made a lot of birdies and stayed actively based on what I was doing last week. This is one of the toughest golf courses to play on the tour, and I have to get into the game to make birdies and give them a lot of looks.”
Shane Lowry played alongside Griffin, earning 69 people. One of the 69 players destroyed 70. It may not have been such a good thing that Griffin was playing.
“When we were finished, I told him, ‘Continue with that, things will change for you very soon,” Laurie said with a smile. “He was almost holed up everything he saw today. It was good. We bouncing off each other and we all really did well.
“My 3 under doesn’t look that great next to his 7 under, but 3 under is a good score on this course,” he said. “That’s pretty difficult.”
Homa continues to try and put together his game, which allowed him to reach No. 10 in the world when he played Memorial last year. He is currently on No. 87 and faces a long week – a rigorous test at Muirfield Village, and 36 holes for qualifying will open on Monday.
“I told my coach last night that this was the best thing my swing has felt for so long, and the whole game felt that way,” Homa said. “We didn’t have to shoot a low number to verify that, but it just feels good.”
Nick Taylor had one of the 10 double bogeys on the par 3 12th (the other two made triple bogeys), while the Canadians gathered with two birdies of 69 on the final three holes.
Schaeffler won the PGA Championship and tried to get as much rest as possible ahead of the Colonial. He worked a little more on his days towards the Memorial, fought in pars and spent too much time fighting.
He did that well too. He only dropped two shots despite hitting six of the 14 fairways.
It was last time the US Open in the US that he surpassed par to start the tournament.
“I felt like I scored pretty well, and if I want to continue doing that, I have to be a little sharper for the next few days,” Schaeffler said. “But overall, it’s a good job posting scores. Yeah, 2 under here is always pretty good.”
You don’t need to tell Thomas (80) or Daniel Berger (81). And then there was Adam Scott. Adam Scott was over seven years old in his rounds through six holes. He even played par for the rest of his 79.