Memorial Tournament: Scottie Scheffler shoots 68 to take control with three-shot lead

Scottie Scheffler eagled the 15th hole and birdied the last to build a three-shot lead at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio on Friday.

The world No 1 is back atop a PGA Tour leaderboard, seeking his fifth win of the season. In his past seven starts dating to March, he’s won four tournaments and tied for second twice.

Scheffler’s four-under 68 was the second-best round of the day as Muirfield Village Golf Club played tougher in the second round than the first.

At nine-under through two days, Scheffler has a healthy advantage over Norway’s Viktor Hovland and Canada’s Adam Hadwin back at six under.

South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout posted the round of the day early on Friday, a five-under 67, to jump up the leaderboard. He is tied for fourth at five under with Keegan Bradley (69).

Scheffler started the day one shot off Hadwin’s pace and made three birdies on the front nine to climb to eight under, alone in the lead. A few poor shots at the par-five 11th led to a bogey, which he duplicated two holes later after a bad drive and an even worse approach.

But it was all smiles at the par-five 15th, where his second shot rolled up to about nine feet from the pin to set him up for eagle. Despite missing the fairway at the par-four 18th, Scheffler went from bunker to green and sank a 12-foot, right-to-left birdie putt.

Though the Memorial is a $20m signature event, its status as a player-hosted invitational means that it retains a 36-hole cut to the top 50 players plus ties.

Jack Nicklaus’ event will not see the likes of Jordan Spieth (five over), Wyndham Clark (five over), Patrick Cantlay (seven over), Englishman Justin Rose (nine over) or Rickie Fowler (14 over, last place) on the weekend.

Watch the Memorial Tournament throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Watch coverage of Saturday’s third round from 4.30pm on Sky Sports Golf.