DUBLIN, Ohio – Adam Hadwin had plenty of birdies to complain about as he ended his round at the Memorial on a sour note on Thursday. His 6-under 66 was enough to edge Masters champion Scottie Scheffler by one stroke and give the Canadian hope he is turning the corner at the right time.
Hadwin was one of the few to conquer a course at Muirfield Village that was soft from the rain but no less punishing. He made birdies on four of five holes at the end of the first round – after four birdies on the front nine – until missing a 5-foot par putt on the difficult 18th.
For Scheffler and PGA champion Xander Schauffele, it was more of the same.
Scheffler opened with two birdies on four holes — he missed birdie chances of 6 feet and 8 feet on the other two — and was humming along until a big pile of mud slowed him down on the par-5 fifth hole and led to bogey.
Schauffele returned for the first time since winning his first major at the PGA Championship. His game looked complicated from tee to green. His round was saved by his stick. Schauffele somehow managed a bogey-free 68 to get into the mix.
“I’m going to go out to the fairway and hit the center of the club face a little more, find more fairways and greens,” he said. “I’m happy. I’m happy with how I stayed there and really happy that my short game rescued me on a day that could have been a lot worse.”
Corey Conners, Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg were also 68, with defending champion Viktor Hovland among those at 69.
Hadwin and Conners are coming off the Canadian Open and it’s an important time of year, with just two weeks left until the 60-player field for the Olympics is finalized. Each country receives two players (a maximum of four if they are in the top 15).
Hadwin has not finished in the top 40 since late March and his world ranking has fallen from 44th to 59th.
Conners is in 45th position, while Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes are right behind him in 64th and 65th position (Phoenix Open winner Nick Taylor is guaranteed the top spot).
“In the last month, I’ve probably played it my way…not out of the conversation, but certainly out of a good position to be in,” Hadwin said. “So coming into this week, I know the questions will always be there, but I think for me in particular it was really important this week to get into the process.”
Scheffler has been in this process for what seems like an eternity. He is already a four-time winner this year, including another Masters title. He never seems to miss a shot.
But after splitting the middle of the fairway on the 535-yard fifth hole, Scheffler looked down and saw a large patch of mud on top and to the right of his golf ball. It was enough to make him think about stopping, but a stream runs down the middle towards the green, and he had no idea which direction the ball was going in with so much mud.
“In retrospect, maybe I could have aimed for the middle of the creek and seen where it would have gone and maybe one of the fairways,” he said. “But at the time, it didn’t seem like a good idea.”
Then he went to the green and watched it fly 60 yards to the left of where he wanted it – left of the green, left of the water, left of a red hazard line that rarely comes into play on a hill.
It came out of the tall grass over the water and green, leaving a chip on a tight pin and a green running away from it. He delicately took it to the edge and made bogey on the easiest hole of the day.
The rest of the round was solid as always, ending with an approach to a foot on the 18th, which was the hardest hole of the opening round.
Schauffele was bogey-free and doesn’t know how. His biggest scare also came in the fifth, with a ball of mud of his own. This one sailed straight at him into a bunker, requiring a shot over the top of another bunker into a tight spot. The sand was wet, Schauffele caught a lot of the ball and saw it disappear into the grass. That’s where more water awaits.
“When the ball was in the air, I closed my eyes,” he said. “I wouldn’t call myself religious, but I hoped everything would work out.”
He got close to the water and managed to get up and down for par, making an eight-foot putt. He took care of the other par 5s with birdies, added another with a 30-foot putt on the par-3 fourth and only slightly fazed by missing an 8-foot birdie chance at the end.
“If I hadn’t made some of the shots I needed today, it probably would have been a 2-over, or worse,” Schauffele said.
Only 25 players from the 73-player field managed to break par, a group that included Rory McIlroy at 70, and who had four birdies in the last six holes.
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