DUBLIN: Adam Hadwin of Canada racked up eight birdies and secured the first-round lead at the Memorial Tournament on Thursday at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.
In a stacked field of 73 players at the US$20 million (RM94 million) signature event, Hadwin posted a 6-under 66 and leads World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by one shot.
Xander Schauffele shot a bogey-free, 4-under 68 for his first competitive round since winning the PGA Championship last month. He is tied for third with Collin Morikawa, Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and Canada's Corey Conners.
Hadwin started his round with a downhill, 29-foot birdie putt at the first hole and added a 35 1/2-footer at the par-5 fifth.
Those were two of his four birdies on the front nine before a bogey at No. 8. His four birdies on the back nine were much shorter, none longer than 5 feet, and he stood at 7 under before bogeying his last.
"I feel pretty comfortable right now over the golf ball with kind of the entire game," Hadwin said.
"I never felt rushed, I never felt like the – as I kept making birdies, like I was getting ahead of myself or anything like that. Very comfortable. So I feel in a lot better position to kind of handle any sort of adversity that may come or when it comes, I think, because I feel like it will come around this place."
Hadwin, 36, is a top-60 player in the world but has just one PGA Tour win to his name, which came back in 2017.
"It's only Thursday, a lot of golf left," Hadwin said.
"... I took advantage of maybe a little bit softer Muirfield Village with the rain overnight and we've got three more rounds to go, and I've been torn apart by this place before, so I know how quickly it can sneak up on you. So just keep doing what I did really well today."
Scheffler played the front nine in 1-under 35 before picking up birdies at Nos. 11, 13, 15 and 18. He nearly holed out for eagle at the final hole, his approach back-spinning to 18 inches from the cup.
"Going out this morning, a little softer greens, a little softer fairways and was able to put up a good score," Scheffler said. "It felt like I hit a lot of quality shots today, it felt like my ball-striking was really good and I was able to hole a few putts as well."
Schauffele did not feel his game was sharp in his first round back from a few weeks off.
"If I didn't make some of the putts I needed to today, it would have been like a 2-over probably or worse," said Schauffele, who holed a 32-foot birdie at No. 4 and a nearly 20-footer at No. 7.
"So, again, really happy I was able to see the – I saw the lines sort of quickly, even from the get-go."
Morikawa, who has placed fourth in his last two starts (the PGA Championship and the Charles Schwab Challenge), was enjoying a strong round until his only bogey came at the last hole to knock him out of a tie at 5 under. His highlight was a hole-out for eagle at the par-4 second from 133 yards.
"We decided to hit sand wedge just so I could hit it as hard as I could and I was never going over the green," Morikawa said.
"Before the ball's landing I think (caddie Jonathan Jakovac) was talking about it going in, and thankfully it did, and it was nice."
Defending Memorial champion Viktor Hovland of Norway is one of five players tied at 3-under 69, and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is part of a group at 2-under 70. - REUTERS