Scheffler exasperated as Memorial logjam forms at top

Scheffler exasperated – Scottie Scheffler hit a wind-blown round he described as deeply frustrating, signing for 73 that left him six shots behind a four-way lead tied at 5-under after Thursday’s Memorial start at Muirfield Village. Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun, Tommy Fleetwood and Ryan

DUBLIN. Ohio — Scottie Scheffler started Thursday’s Memorial bid for three straight wins with the kind of round that keeps rubbing salt into the same place. The wind arrived. the course sharpened. and by the time he was dealing with a bogey on the 14th and a double bogey after his ball found the water on the 16th. he wasn’t just battling golf. He was battling frustration.

Scheffler finished with a 73, landing him six shots behind a four-way share of the lead. He never framed it as anything other than maddening timing and unforgiving bounces. walking 96 yards to the drop area on one sequence with his palms upward as he searched—without answers—alongside caddie Ted Scott.

“I don’t think you understand how frustrating that is,” Scheffler told Scott.

“I do,” the caddie replied quietly.

Wyndham Clark, coming off a victory in the Byron Nelson, joined U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Tommy Fleetwood, and Ryan Gerard each at 5-under 67. It was a brutal enough test that only 22 players broke par at Muirfield Village. and Scheffler’s start never threatened the group at the top until the wind and course had already taken the momentum out of his hands.

The morning wave didn’t help. Six of the seven players who broke 70 started before 10 a.m. missing out on the swirling wind on a hot. clear day that made the greens even firmer than they already were. Gerard was the exception. and his round had the chaos of a scoring binge that still managed to stay on the rails.

He made a 3 on a par 5 and followed it with a 5 on a par 3. After that, the back nine turned into birdie math: he strung together five straight birdies, with only five pars on his scorecard for the entire round. A 67 was all that mattered.

“The small misses often lead to big punishments at this golf course,” Gerard said. “I don’t think we aimed at a flag stick on the back nine and shot 5 under. You’re picking small targets around either the edge of a bunker or a rake or some guy wearing a bright-colored shirt in the background or a TV tower or whatever it might be.”.

Fleetwood’s 67 was his lowest round in his fifth time playing the Memorial, though it didn’t come from the kind of tidy ball-striking he’d have preferred. He was solid off the tee but struggled from the fairway, hitting only seven greens. Still, he stayed bogey-free.

“I got the most out of the round, totally. I got away with a couple of poor misses. Hit the pin a couple of times when it was going past. … Shot 5 under, so it couldn’t have been that bad. I was just getting a little frustrated at the end not being able to execute the iron shots that I wanted to.”

Nick Taylor, playing in Canada, was one stroke behind after a start that went wrong quickly. He opened with a double bogey on the par-5 seventh and a bogey on the next hole. then steadied himself by playing bogey-free on the tough back nine. He finished with one of only seven birdies on the 18th hole.

Justin Rose and Sam Burns were at 69.

Scheffler, meanwhile, became the day’s most vivid reminder of how quickly good golf can turn into a penalty. He changed clubs on the ninth, took the longer option, and still came up short. On the par-5 11th, he changed clubs three times from the fairway and again came up short. Then the water ball on the 16th was the capper.

What followed was a stream of frustration that felt almost like a running log of how the wind refused to cooperate. “I never thought that was in the water. … I don’t know what to do. … I absolutely flushed a 7-iron and we get the wind wrong and I’m in the water. … I’m hitting good shots and dropping from hazards.”.

When he signed for his 73 and was asked whether he’d had any fun at any point, Scheffler responded with a half-laugh, rubbing his chin as he said, “Not that I can recall at the moment.”

Then, late in the round, the 17th offered a brief glimpse of what keeps players coming back. From a fairway bunker, Scheffler faced 182 yards to a tucked pin in the front right. He hit a 7-iron to the collar 15 feet away and chipped in for birdie.

“See, that’s the thing that can be so frustrating about golf,” Scheffler said. “I striped one on the hole before that and I end up in the water. That one I kind of hit thin, and you get a good bounce and I end up on the fringe and I chip in.

“Yeah, what a game,” he added. “I felt like I didn’t get anything out of the round, all of a sudden you get a lucky bounce and you’re like, ‘OK, well, I’m going to try to smile.’ It’s still hard.”

He did smile as he made his way toward the clubhouse, the wind starting to calm late in the afternoon and his realization that the score wasn’t all that bad compared with others from the afternoon.

For many, it was tough all over. Patrick Cantlay was 3 over through holes and recovered for a 70. Rory McIlroy overcame an early double bogey to go 3 under the rest of the way for a 71. Aaron Rai—playing alongside Scheffler in his first start since winning the PGA Championship—shot 73.

But for Scheffler, the day’s headline moment wasn’t the leaderboard gap. It was the sense that golf can turn on you in an instant—then keep turning—until the only thing left to do is search for answers that the wind won’t give.

Scottie Scheffler Memorial Muirfield Village Wyndham Clark J.J. Spaun Tommy Fleetwood Ryan Gerard Nick Taylor Justin Rose Sam Burns Rory McIlroy Patrick Cantlay Aaron Rai PGA Championship Byron Nelson U.S. Open