Ben Griffin still on a heater after
his win on punishing course at Memorial
[May 30, 2025]
By DOUG FERGUSON
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Ben Griffin resumed the great play that brought
him his first individual PGA Tour victory last week, hitting two
shots in the water and still posting a 7-under 65 on Thursday in the
Memorial on a course with rough as dense as a U.S. Open.
Griffin isn't taking victory laps after winning at Colonial. He just
kept making birdies, along with an eagle on the par- 5 seventh hole
with a 3-wood into 12 feet. He led by two shots over Collin Morikawa,
with Max Homa another stroke behind.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler wasn't at his best and still
managed a 70, his 19th consecutive tournament in which he opened
with a round par.
Griffin was playing so well that his two water balls — on the par-5
11th and par-3 12th — only led to bogeys when such mistakes punished
so many other players.
“Yeah, a couple water balls — really need to go to the range and
work on my game to clean that stuff up,” Griffin said with a laugh.
He knew this was a good one. Muirfield Village was soft enough from
rain the past two days that good scores were available provided
shots came from the fairway, and not from rough that Justin Thomas
had said was comparable to what they will face at Oakmont in the
U.S. Open.
“Basically a U.S. Open we're playing," Keegan Bradley said. “I'm
going to be playing back-to-back U.S. Opens here. But the course is
very fair, setup nice. Just a tough test.”
The numbers bear that out, whether it was only 13 players who broke
par in a gentle wind, or the eight players who made triple bogey on
seven of the holes at Muirfield Village.
Griffin set the pace early by going out in 31, and then ran into a
few problems with the water. He tried to reach the green on the
11th, came up short and into the water, and missed a 10-foot par
putt. On the 12th, his tee shot bounced back down the slope into the
water. He saved bogey with a 6-foot putt.
But what a finish — a 15-foot birdie on the par-3 16th, a 12-foot
birdie on the 17th and holing out from just over 50 feet up the
ridge on the 18th for a third straight birdie.
“It was an incredible day,” Griffin said. “Kind of building on what
I was doing last week, making a ton of birdies, staying aggressive.
This is one of the toughest golf courses we play on tour and you’ve
got to be on your game to make birdies and give yourself a lot of
looks.”
Shane Lowry played alongside Griffin and had a 69, one of only six
players to break 70. It might not have felt that good the way
Griffin was playing.
“I told him when we finished, ‘Keep it going, things will turn
around for you pretty soon,’” Lowry said with a smile. "He pretty
much holed everything he looked at today. It was good. We bounced
off each other, we all played really nicely.
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Ben Griffin reacts after sinking his shot on the 18th green during
the first round of the Memorial golf tournament Thursday, May 29,
2025, in Dublin, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
“My 3 under doesn’t look that great beside his 7
under, but 3 under is a good score out there on this course,” he
said. “It’s pretty difficult.”
Homa keeps trying to piece together his game that allowed him to
reach No. 10 in the world when he played the Memorial last year. Now
he is at No. 87 and faces a long week — a tough test at Muirfield
Village, and then 36 holes of U.S. Open qualifying Monday.
“I told my coach last night this is the best my swing has felt in a
really long time. Then the whole game kind of felt like that,” Homa
said. “I didn't need to shoot a low number to validate that, but it
just feels nice.”
Nick Taylor had one of the 10 double bogeys — two others made triple
bogey — on the par-3 12th, but the Canadian rallied with two birdies
on his last three holes for a 69.
Scheffler won the PGA Championship and tried to get as much rest as
he could ahead of Colonial, where he still tied for fourth. He
worked a little more in the days heading into Memorial and spent too
much time in the rough and battling for pars.
He does that well, too, dropping only two shots despite hitting six
of the 14 fairways and twice failing to convert birdie chances on
the par 5s on the back nine.
The last time he was over par to start a tournament was the U.S.
Open last year.
“I felt like I scored pretty well. If I want to keep doing that,
I’ll have to be a little sharper the next few days,” Scheffler said.
“But overall, a good job posting a score. Yeah, 2 under on this
place any day is pretty good.”
No need telling that to Thomas (80) or Daniel Berger (81). And then
there was Adam Scott, who was 7 over for his round through six
holes. He played even par the rest of the way for a 79.
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