Davis Riley Leads As the Dry Memorial Tournament Figures to Get More Difficult

Jack Nicklaus's event often has rain but the forecast looks clear, which means a firm, fast and tough Muirfield Village Golf Club.

DUBLIN, Ohio – Jack Nicklaus’s record of greatness is well established but one thing that’s been out of his control is the weather at his beloved Memorial Tournament, where veterans of the event are used to packing all manner of rain gear and foul-weather accessories and accustomed to delays.

That is not expected to be the case this week, and the players are seeing it in the form of a tough Muirfield Village Golf Club course that is expected to get more difficult as the $20 million designated event continues.

Davis Riley birdied three of his last four holes on Thursday to finish at 67, the lowest score of the day that for a time was on pace to not see anyone go that low. The highest opening-round leading score in the last five years on the PGA Tour was a 68 in the 2018 C.J. Cup.

“The course is just really firm and fast and the rough's up," said Jordan Spieth, whose 69 trails by two. “The fairways are bouncing more than normal. We normally get rain here. So you can talk about the green surfaces, but they were appropriately firm and extremely pure.

“Probably the best surfaces I've ever putted on in an afternoon on a Thursday. You really just didn't have to fix hardly anything. I was shocked at how fantastic they were.

“All the fairways are like half the width that they normally are. I think that's what make it's such a challenge, because if you miss them ... there’s only a couple greens you could hold. You’ve got to try and play the par-5s under par and hold on on the rest."

Riley had six birdies and a bogey to hold the first-round lead at the Memorial for the second straight year. England’s Matt Wallace, who played early and was the only other player in the field to get to 5 under on his round at any point, shot a 68 that held up for hours.

Spieth was part of a seven-way tie for third that includes Shane Lowry and Danny Willett. Defending champion Billy Horschel failed to make a birdie and shot 84.

And Chad Ramey shot 88, including a 13 on the par-4 9th hole – the highest score recorded there by four shots. After his tee shot, he found the water fronting the green four times, then three-putted.

Rory McIlroy would have joined the group at 3 under were it not for a triple-bogey 7 on the 18th hole. He had difficulty advancing the ball out of the rough after his tee shot and needed five shots to get on the green before two-putting from 8 feet for the triple.

No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler shot 74, his highest-opening round of the year. No. 2 Jon Rahm shot 70. (Scheffler and Rahm are also 1-2 in the SI World Golf Rankings.)

The conditions are what Nicklaus desires but so seldom gets. This is the 48th hear of the tournament he founded in 1976.

“We haven’t had any rain here for I don’t know how long," Nicklaus said. “The forecast is not to have any rain. We have never had that in Columbus. I’ve used the phrase many times about that, and I’ll use it again: the Columbus weatherman is about 97 percent correct 3 percent of the time.

“So I hope he’s 100 percent correct this time because I like dry golf courses. I think they bring out the best in a golfer. It forces them to think about how they play, not just rear back and hit it."