Nick Taylor of Canada shot a bogey-free, 4-under-par 68 and rose into a tie with Ben Griffin for the second-round lead at the Memorial Tournament on Friday in rainy Dublin, Ohio.
Griffin had the solo lead after Day 1 but only managed an even-par 72 Friday, leaving him tied at 7-under 137 with Taylor, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour.
They’re two strokes ahead of Akshay Bhatia, who carded a 69 to get to 5 under for the event.
Two of Taylor’s birdies came at par-3s, including a 24 1/2-foot putt at No. 4, and he hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation to lead the field.
“The nice thing was for most of the day my speed was very good, so it was a lot of tap-in pars if I wasn’t making birdie,” Taylor said. “… So, yeah, it was a clean card, which not necessarily that I expected, but it was nice to keep it as simple as possible.”
While Taylor is hunting for his second win of 2025 after taking the Sony Open in Hawaii last January, Griffin can do one better.
Griffin is in the midst of the hottest stretch of his PGA Tour career, having won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last month (with partner Andrew Novak) and adding his first individual title last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.
Griffin followed his only bogey of the day Friday with his only birdie, a 1-foot tap-in at the par-5 11th.
“Fortunately, having a later tee time, I didn’t have to battle the elements quite as much as some of the early groups,” he said. “Definitely had some heavier rain at times, but it looked like the early guys had more the tougher draw. So for me I was fortunate to try to take advantage of some of that. I didn’t really make a lot of birdies, but had a really steady round.”
Scottie Scheffler overcame a double bogey to shoot his second straight round of 70, placing him fourth and in striking distance at 4 under.
After making three birdies through his first five holes, some of that progress was undone at No. 10 because of a wayward tee shot and a three-putt from 43 feet. But he rallied to make up the shots with birdies at Nos. 11 and 12 before a bogey at No. 14.
“The golf course is playing really long,” Scheffler said. “It’s a very challenging golf course. When the rough gets this wet, any time you hit it in the rough, the lies are going to be really bad and it’s going to be really challenging.”
The round of the day belonged to Scheffler’s friend Sam Burns, whose 65 was an 11-stroke improvement over his first round. He elevated into a tie for fifth at 3 under with Jordan Spieth (69) and Irishman Shane Lowry (72).
Burns’ card featured an eagle from the bunker at the par-5 fifth, six birdies (four on the inward nine) and just one bogey.
“Hit a great drive (at No. 5) and that was kind of one of those, you know, balls covered in water, a little bit of mud,” Burns said. “Was trying to just kind of hit like a cut hybrid over kind of to the right side of the green and it kind of knuckled and came out low and fortunately got in the bunker. It’s not really a great spot that bunker, it’s pretty tight to that pin. (Caddie Travis Perkins) and I talked about it, like a great shot would be 6 feet on the other side of the hole and it came out perfect and went in.”
The only other players under par through 36 holes are Russell Henley (68), Xander Schauffele (69), Tom Hoge (69) and Collin Morikawa (75) at 2 under.
The $20 million signature event hosted by Jack Nicklaus comes with a cut to the top 50 players and ties. The cut line fell at 5 over par.
Justin Thomas, who opened with an 80, cleaned up his act and posted a second-round 69 to get to 5 over par and make the cut on the number along with Wyndham Clark and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. Notables who missed the cut included Sahith Theegala (7 over) and Brian Harman (10 over).
–Field Level Media
