Jack Nicklaus was wrong.
He thought things might get tougher Friday at The Memorial on his Muirfield Village Golf Club.
They didn’t.
It was a pure scoring spree. Seventy-five players made the cut and you had to shoot at least two-under par to stay for the weekend.
Matt Kuchar, the 2013 Memorial champ has a terrific record at this event and he’s off and running again. He shot 66 for the second day and he’s 12-under par. He shares the top spot with Brendan Steele, who has been an early-round invader at the top of leader boards this season and he’s there again and he best explained what is going on at Jack’s Place:
“I don’t think we’re ever going to see better conditions than this,” Steele pointed out after his 67. “If you hit good shots, you can really go low.”
A lot of players have gone low. Emiliano Grillo and Gary Woodland are in at 11-under.
Overnight leader Dustin Johnson couldn’t equal his first day’s work and a 71 put him at nine-under.
You’ll find a lot of big names at seven-under. Phil Mickelson is there. So is Jason Day and Rory McIlroy. They’re all in position to make a weekend run.
So his Jordan Spieth. After a sleepy 70 on Thursday, he came back with 68 and is at six-under.
Defending champ David Lingmerth has a lot of ground to make up. He’s only three-under.
The biggest name to go home early was world’s No. 4 Rickie Fowler. His 69 was not good enough to make up for his first round 75.
Saturday’s round will see more soft conditions as rain is expected to play a big part of the third round.
