Ben Griffin fires 65, sets early pace at Memorial

New Straits Times

30-05-2025

After winning a tournament on Sunday, Ben Griffin stayed hot Thursday by shooting a 7-under-par 65 to take the first-round lead at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.
Griffin made an 11 1/2-foot eagle at the par-5 seventh and had a three-birdie run at Nos. 16-18 at Muirfield Village Golf Club. He finished the day with a two-shot advantage over Collin Morikawa, a two-time runner-up at the tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus.
"My dad always used to tell me, 'Par the first and last holes,' and unfortunately, I birdied the first and the last," Griffin joked.
Griffin, 29, won his first PGA Tour title last month at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event with Andrew Novak. He validated that victory with his first individual win this past week at the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club.
It was clear he was not tired from the quick turnaround.
"This is nothing. I started out the year playing 13 events in a row," Griffin said. .".. It's funny, I talked to a lot of my peers out here, and they don't understand how I do it. I think it's because I do a really good job resting on Mondays and Tuesday mornings. I don't really prepare for tournaments until pretty much Tuesday afternoons, unless it's a course that I'm not familiar with or maybe a major championship, I try to get a little extra prep in."
Morikawa had five birdies through 14 holes before a wayward drive at the par-5 15th led to his lone bogey. He made up for it at the very next hole, rolling his tee shot at the par-3 16th just past the cup and making a 4-footer for birdie.
"Honestly, I woke up today kind of not knowing how the swing was going to produce," Morikawa said. "I spent a couple hours on the range after the pro-am yesterday and was just trying to find something. Yeah, kind of went to some old swing thoughts, and it's hard to filter through that, but did it on the range, and kind of was just able to go play golf."
In third place was Max Homa with a 4-under 68. Homa has fared better since parting with caddie Joe Greiner, who now works for Morikawa. Homa is searching for his first win on tour since January 2023.
"My game feels about as good as it has in a very, very long time," Homa said, "and I knew that I think that brought some peace, which was nice, not feeling like I needed to do much. Then, yeah, you get off to a good start like that and it just kind of calms some of the nerves."
U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, Canadian Nick Taylor and Irishman Shane Lowry are tied for fourth at 3-under 69. World No. 1 and defending champion Scottie Scheffler opened with a 2-under 70.
"I need to give myself some more looks," Scheffler said. "I felt like I was out of the fairway a bit too much today. I was able to hit a decent amount of greens, just giving myself a few more quality looks, I think, would be a big difference."
The US$20 million signature event will feature a cut Friday from 72 players to the top 50 and ties, plus anyone within 10 shots of the lead.
Only 13 players managed to shoot under par Thursday. Players who'll need to work to make the cut in the second round include Sweden's Ludvig Aberg (3-over 75), England's Matt Fitzpatrick (4-over 76) and Justin Rose (6-over 78), Wyndham Clark (78) and Justin Thomas (8-over 80).