The Memorial Tournament, Round 2
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FURYK'S FINEST SHOT (6:30 p.m.): Someone asked Jim Furyk to describe the best birdie he made on Friday during the second round of the Memorial Tournament.
Was it the downhill 10-footer he made at the par-3 fourth? Or maybe the 7-footer from behind the hole at the 18th that capped off a round of 70 and propelled Furyk into a tie for the lead with Jonathan Byrd at 7 under.
"I'll take all five of them," Furyk responded. "They're all beautiful. Just like kids. Why have a favorite? They're all beautiful." -- Helen Ross
DONALD STRUGGLES ON DAY 2 (6 p.m.): What a difference a day made for Luke Donald. He opened with a sizzling 64 to seize the lead but gave four of those strokes back on Friday when he shot 4 over.
The tone for the day was set early. The young Brit started on the back nine Friday and proceeded to make four bogeys before finally getting a birdie at the first hole as he made the turn.
"You've got to kind of forget this round," Donald said. "Hopefully (I) got my bad round out of the way. I actually felt like I played better my first nine, than I did my second nine. I drove it poorly on my back nine. I got away with a few shots.
"Generally, just have to work on it a little bit, feel a little bit more confident off the tee."
Donald, who has four top-10s already this season, only hit nine fairways on Friday and 10 greens for the second straight day. Perhaps most telling, the man who needed just 20 putts in the first round -- a tournament record -- took 32 on Friday.
"Ultimately, I didn't give myself enough chances, you know, makeable chances," Donald said. "You've got to be in the right side of the hole around this golf course. If you're not, three putts and all that."
That said, Donald still finds himself just three strokes off the pace now set by Jonathan Byrd and Jim Furyk. So he needs to put his first two rounds -- the good and the bad -- behind him and focus on the weekend as he stalks his first win since the 2006 Honda Classic.
"I was trying to not focus on yesterday," Donald said. "Yesterday was a totally different day. Just get out there and give myself some chances for birdie. Play the course smart. It's getting firmer and faster out there. It's not getting any easier. It's getting harder. You have to be smart around this place.
"I think I can make enough quality good shots." -- Helen Ross
Below is a look at Donald's scorecards through the first two rounds:
FIELD SET FOR NEXT WEEK (5:45 p.m.): The field for next week's St. Jude Classic became official about 45 minutes ago, confirming what was reported earlier this week that Phil Mickelson would be making his return to the PGA TOUR after a brief absence to be with his wife Amy, who is battling breast cancer.
There's all sorts of positive news behind that story. Prior to committing to playing in Memphis, Mickelson said doctors believed they caught the cancer early. His decision to play next week seems to be another sign of that. Hopefully there will be another "Pink Out," too.
One other notable name you'll see in the field for next week is John Daly, who will be making his first appearance in a TOUR event since last October at the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Daly has been playing most of this year on the European Tour. -- Brian Wacker
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES (5:30 p.m.): A day after Luke Donald went low with an 8-under 64 in the opening round, the lead is actually 7 under as Round 2 comes to a conclusion. That lead isn't Donald's either, it belongs to Jonathan Byrd, who followed his opening 69 with a 68 today.
What can we expect on the weekend? Probably more of what we saw today. The course is only going to get firmer and the conditions more difficult. That's the way tournament host Jack Nicklaus likes them -- just not as difficult as last year, which is why the rough has been cut down slightly.
There's obviously still a lot of golf to be played, but few would have guessed that heading into the weekend Ernie Els (4 under) would be in better position than Tiger Woods (1 under). The good news for Woods, however, is that even though he shot a 74 today, his swing is starting to take hold and he's hitting more fairways and greens than he has at most any time this season. Still, it'll take something pretty special to come from six shots back. -- Brian Wacker
O'HAIR INJURY UPDATE (4:50 p.m.): Sean O'Hair, who withdrew with an injury earlier today had the following to say about it: "I originally hurt my forearm last Saturday, but hoped to be able to play through it this week because the Memorial is a tournament that means so much to me," O'Hair said. "When it got worse (Friday), I knew I had to be careful to not do further damage to it. I'll get it looked at back home over the next couple of days and make sure I'm taking the right steps to get it feeling better again." -- Helen Ross
CUT CHECK (4:35 p.m.): How difficult have conditions been this afternoon at Muirfield Village? Consider that the cut line was 2 over just a couple of hours ago and that it's since moved to 4 over. That's good news for Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and a whole bunch of others who looked like they might be headed home early. A big part of that has to do with how difficult the back nine is playing -- nearly 1 1/2 strokes over par with seven of the nine toughest holes coming on the back. -- Brian Wacker
FURYK IN FRONT (4 p.m.): It was seven years ago that Jim Furyk won the Memorial Tournament, finishing at 14 under and two shots clear of John Cook and David People after shooting a final-round 65 that included a chip-in birdie on the par-3 12th and an eagle from the bunker on the par-5 15th.
Today, Furyk is trying to put himself in position for another title run. He's 2 under through 12 holes and hasn't missed a fairway yet -- though he does have a couple of bogeys.
Furyk has a history of playing well here, which would explain why he was one of our Expert Picks this week, with four career top-10 finishes. There's still a lot of golf left today and the rest of the weekend, but it's hard to think he won't get another one this year. -- Brian Wacker
ANDRADE OUT (3:43 p.m.): Billy Andrade has withdrawn from the Memorial Tournament midway through his second round after pulling a muscle in his ribcage. The former Wake Forest All-American shot a first-round 76 and was 2 over through 10 holes when he made his early exit. -- Helen Ross
THIS AND THAT (3:30 p.m.): Jonathan Byrd bettered his opening-round 3-under 69 with a 68 today to get to 7 under and the clubhouse lead. Should that hold up, it would be the eighth time he has held at least a share of the 36-hole lead. Just once, at the 2004 B.C. Open, has that led to a win. ...
Three-time Memorial champion Kenny Perry (72-73) should be in good shape to record his 16th straight made cut at the Memorial, which would tie him for second with Hale Irwin. Scott Hoch leads the list with 17 straight made cuts from 1981-97. ...
Steve Marino (72) saw his consecutive rounds in the 60s streak snapped at nine on Friday. Through 36 holes, Marino sits at 4-under 140. ...
The hottest start of the morning wave in the second round belonged to PGA TOUR rookie Matt Bettencourt, who is playing on a sponsor's exemption. Bettencourt, who won twice on the Nationwide Tour in 2008, birdied four of his first eight holes before posting a 3-under 69. The 2009 Memorial Tournament is his 17th career TOUR start. His best finish of the year is a T22 at the Quail Hollow Championship. -- Doug Milne
DONALD STRUGGLING (3:10 p.m.): A day after needing just 20 putts in a round of 64, Luke Donald is having a much tougher time this afternoon.
Donald is 3 over on his round and has dropped to 5 under for the week and out of the lead. He's also taken as many putts through his first 11 holes as he did all of yesterday. That's led to four bogeys and just one birdie for Donald, who had nine birdies and just one bogey yesterday.
So what's the difference? Well, mostly his putting. Donald has hit 6 of 9 fairways and nearly the same percentage of greens in regulation as he did yesterday, but the putts just aren't dropping today. A big part of that is because Donald just isn't hitting his approach shots as close -- yesterday, he averaged 24 feet, 5 inches, compared to 42 feet, 2 inches today. -- Brian Wacker
SECOND-ROUND LEADERS (2:55 p.m.): The good news for Jonathan Byrd and Jim Furyk? The second-round leader has gone on to win the Memorial tournament 12 times. Byrd is in the clubhouse at 7 under, while Furyk is 7 under with 10 holes left to play today.
The last time the second-round leader won here was just last year when Kenny Perry went on to capture his third career Memorial title.
However, just 10 of 22 players this season have gone on to win after holding or sharing the 36-hole lead. Two of those players have done so in each of the last two weeks, though, with Steve Stricker winning at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial and Rory Sabbatini capturing the HP Byron Nelson Championship. -- Brian Wacker
BREAKING DOWN TIGER'S DAY (2:40 p.m.): After hitting 13 of 14 fairways in the first round, Tiger Woods only missed two in the second. One was by an inch -- he was quick to point out -- the other by a couple of yards.
"I'm encouraged by that," Woods said. "Just need to hit my irons a little better and obviously make the short ones. I missed two or three of those today."
So as pleased as he was with the way he drove the ball on the breezy Friday morning, Woods' round of 74 left something to be desired. After starting the second round five strokes off the lead, the three-time Memorial champ took a tumble down the leaderboard where he stands 1 under through 36 holes.
"Hit my ball on the short side," said Woods, who missed seven greens. "Can't do that out here. Got to miss it on the correct side today."
Woods, who used 29 putts for the second straight day, said he talked with the course superintendent Friday morning. He told the world No. 1 the greens were running at 14 on the Stimpmeter.
"That's not slow," Woods said in understatement. -- Helen Ross
Here's a look at Woods' scorecard from today:
INTERVIEW WITH TIGER (2:20 p.m.): Some highlights from Tiger Woods' interview with the media after what clearly was far from his best round ...
Q. Talk a little about the round today.
TIGER WOODS: Well, I hit it good off the tees again today. I drove it great. Hit my ball on the short side. Can't do that out here. Got to miss it on the correct side today. Missed a few short ones as well.
Q. When you say you can still hit the ball better, are you encouraged that you're going in the right direction with your game?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, no doubt. I'm driving it well right now. Missed two fairways. One was by an inch. The other was by two, three yards. I'm encouraged by that. Just need to hit my irons a little better and obviously make the short ones. I missed two or three of those today.
Q. If you're just this happy with the way you're driving the ball, are you a little surprised you're not scoring a little better? Is that just what this course is like?
TIGER WOODS: If you miss it on the short side, you're not going to make pars here. Not with how Jack designs a golf course, if you miss them on the bunkers, a lot of bunkers roll away from you at you come out of them. You have to make sure you hit the ball on the correct side. I didn't do that today.
Q. When you talked the other day in there about protecting your knee, if you've got to put it on a scale of 0 to 100%, where are you right now as far as just letting it go and swinging?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I can pretty much do anything I want. They obviously don't want me playing basketball, so I guess it's not quite that good yet. But it's one of those things where you just -- the worst thing you can do is just stretch it out. The surgery is all for naught. So when I came back, obviously, that was the main goal was to protect it. Obviously, my shot selection was certainly diminished because of that. Now I'm able to start hitting shots again.
Not that Woods has ever lacked confidence, but those are words we haven't heard him say much this year and they're also very confident words. He may have too much ground to make up -- though no one's exactly running away with the tournament right now -- but expect Woods to win again and soon. -- Brian Wacker
CUT CHECK (1:50 p.m.): The cut line at the Memorial tournament has now moved to 3 over, up from 2 over earlier in the day. That's good news for Padraig Harrington and Rocco Mediate, among others, as play continues. Whether it stays there or not, we'll have to wait and see. At best, though, it shouldn't rise any higher than 2 over. -- Brian Wacker
TIGER UPDATE (1:25 p.m.): Tiger Woods hit just one less fairway and two fewer greens in regulation today, but the best he could manage was a 2-over 74. That leaves Woods well back at 1 under through 36 holes and it was also tied for his second-worst score at the Memorial in previous five visits to Muirfield Village. After his round, Woods headed straight to the range to work on his swing.
Meanwhile, the man who led Woods and everyone else at the start of the day, Luke Donald, has dropped out of the top spot on the leaderboard thanks to a pair of bogeys in his first five holes. That moved Jonathan Byrd into the lead, for now, at 7 under after he shot 68 today. It's been a couple of years since Byrd has won, but he's had some good outings this year with a tie for fifth at Quail Hollow to go with three other finishes in the top 15. -- Brian Wacker
FROM THE INTERVIEW ROOM (12:50 p.m.): Steve Marino wasn't able to build on his 4-under 68 yesterday, shooting just even par today. It has nothing to do with lingering thoughts of his playoff loss last week, however.
"What are you going to do? Steve Stricker won in the playoff," Marino said today. "I've got to move on to this week. It was obviously -- it would have been awesome to win that tournament, my mom being from there. It just didn't work out for me.
"I was pretty bummed about it for a little bit, but not that long. I got over it. It's in the past."
As mentioned earlier in The Live Report, that's the kind of mental attitude you need to win and Marino is in good position heading into the weekend.
One of the biggest reasons he is has to do with his driver -- Marino has been hitting it straighter off the tee of late and his iron play has always been good (he ranks 14th on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation coming into this week). "Also, I'm putting better," Marino said. "I'm making a lot of putts, like six, seven footers and stuff. I felt like I should have been up there in contention in a lot of tournaments, but I wasn't making the putts I needed to make."
Marino didn't putt particularly well on Friday, taking 30 putts. He also didn't make anything outside of 15 feet. If he can get back to putting more like he did in Round 1 when he took 25 putts, on Saturday, he'll be in contention again. -- Brian Wacker
• For the complete transcript of Marino's interview from today, click here.
LEADER UPDATE (12:25 p.m.): Luke Donald is now on the course, trying to build on the 8-under 64 he shot yesterday. If he putts anything like he did in the first round when he had 20 putts, including just 11 over his last 11 holes, that shouldn't be much of a problem.
Given the superb conditions of the greens at Muirfield, doing so shouldn't be all the difficult, either. Not to mention Donald has enjoyed some immense success with the flat stick on Jack's course as you'll see in the chart below -- three of Donald's five-lowest putting rounds have come at Muirfield Village. -- Brian Wacker
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CUT CHECK (12 p.m.): A mid-day check of the cut line shows that the magic number right now is at 2 over. That has some notable names fighting for a spot in the field on the weekend. Among them is Ian Poulter, who is 1 under today after a 3-over 75 yesterday. Poulter is right on the number after a birdie at No. 16 and is currently on the 18th hole.
Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh and Lucas Glover, meanwhile, are all outside the cut line at 3 over, though either has yet to tee off. Adam Scott, who broke his streak of six straight missed cuts by making it to the weekend at Colonial, could be headed home early again unless he's able to recover from an opening-round 77. The same holds true fro James Driscoll, who if not for a 10 on the par-4 13th yesterday, would be just fine. Instead, Driscoll, who lost in a playoff at the Valero Texas Open just three weeks ago, is on the outside looking in after a 77 of his own. -- Brian Wacker
SCORING SIMILAR TO ROUND 1 (11:48 a.m.): It might seem like Muirfield Village is playing a lot more difficult today with plenty of numbers in the black so far, but looking at the overall scoring average so far, it's only playing a half-stroke easier at the moment.
As for the toughest holes on the golf course, yesterday Nos. 17 and 18 were most difficult and they probably will be again today, though right now the 471-yard, par-4 10th is playing as the hardest hole on the course with the 184-yard par-3 12th the second-most difficult. -- Brian Wacker
INSTANT PROMOTION? (11:30 a.m.): Should Michael Sim make the Melwood Prince George's County Open his third Nationwide Tour win of the season on Sunday, the Aussie would earn an instant promotion to the PGA TOUR.
And his first event -- should Sim so desire -- could be next week's St. Jude Classic. He would have 30 minutes after the end of the Nationwide Tour event on Sunday to commit to play at TPC Southwind.
Sim currently stands second, two strokes off the lead in the rain-delayed Melwood Prince George's County Open. He has played in eight Nationwide Tour events this season and has five finishes of fourth or better -- including one three-tournament stretch that saw Sim win, lose in a playoff and win again, this time in sudden death.
Sim's eligibility category would be as a current year Nationwide Tour three-time winner. As such the Aussie would fall behind the q-school and Nationwide Tour grads in the pecking order but ahead of the players who finished Nos. 126-150 on the 2008 PGA TOUR money list.
For a complete list of Nationwide Tour players who have earned a battlefield promotion in the past, click here. -- Helen Ross
TIGER UPDATE (11:10 a.m.): It looks like Tiger Woods has carried over momentum from his first round into Round 2 -- negative momentum, that is.
Woods, who didn't miss a fairway on Thursday, but bogeyed the final hole of his round, is 1 over through 11 holes today, having made three bogeys over his last nine holes. On the positive side, he's still maintaining a good deal of accuracy off the tee and into the green with 7 of 9 fairways hit and 8 of 11 greens in regulation.
You can follow the rest of Woods' round live with Shot Tracker by clicking here. -- Brian Wacker
MAKING HIS MARK EARLY (11 a.m.): There's not a lot of movement on the leaderboard so far this morning, at least not the kind of red numbers we saw being shot by Luke Donald and others. But Mark Wilson is taking advantage of an early tee time and moving his way up the board with four birdies through his first eight holes.
Wilson, who opened with a 68 yesterday, has done it mostly with terrific ballstriking today -- all but one of his birdies has come from inside 10 feet. Yesterday, Wilson took just 22 putts and today he's on a similar track with just nine through his first eight holes.
This isn't the first time Wilson has gotten off to a good start this season. He opened with a pairs of 66s at the 50th Bob Hope Classic hosted by Arnold Palmer then shot 66-64 in the first two rounds in Cancun five weeks later before going on to win. -- Brian Wacker
MARINO SHOWING MATURITY (10:45 a.m.): Here's why Steve Marino is going to win on the PGA TOUR and probably do so sooner rather than later: He's got a short memory. That, and he obviously has a world of talent with 13 top-10s in a little more than two full years on the PGA TOUR.
Marino shot a solid 4-under 68 yesterday and though he's only even par through 12 holes today, his head is right where it needs to be after suffering a difficult playoff loss at Colonial.
"It was gone. I had a few drinks on Sunday night and forgot about everything," Marino said about coming up short last week. "I was real proud of myself. Proud of the way I played, the way I handled myself ... I'm over it."
That's what all good teams and players do, win or lose. It's why you heard Kobe Bryant say last night's Lakers dominating victory over the Magic in game 1 of the NBA Finals basically meant nothing and it's why Marino has already forgotten about Colonial. -- Brian Wacker
O'HAIR, PIERCY WITHDRAW (10:30 a.m.): Sean O'Hair, who ranks fourth in the FedExCup standings, has withdrawn from the Memorial Tournament due to a strained left forearm.
O'Hair, who shot 76 in the first round, originally hurt his arm last week at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial where he tied for 18th. His agent, Jon Wagner, said O'Hair originally had hoped to play through the injury.
O'Hair made the Quail Hollow Championship his third PGA TOUR victory in May and he has five other top-10s this season, including a solo second at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard.
Rookie of the Year candidate Scott Piercy has also withdrawn due to a wrist injury. Piercy, who opened with a 79, has six top-25s this season and ranks 51st in the FedExCup standings. -- Helen Ross
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