DUBLIN, OH — Davis Riley opened with a 67 at Monument to finish on top of the leaderboard after the opening round for the second year in a row. This is where the similarities end.
Riley Bird holed three of the final four holes on Thursday afternoon when the grass was firm and the wind was turning and bad breaks led to big numbers, as Rory McIlroy discovered.
Riley was in a six-way share of the lead last year. On Thursday, one drove over Matt Wallace. Jordan Spieth was in the group at 69, ending his hopes for a bogey-free day by hitting two putts on the 18th hole and bailing out bogey by a second.
it was hot. it was hard. Sometimes it was hard to watch.
Chad Rami hit a four-putt that landed in the water on the ninth hole, which featured a putt-putt and a creek in front of the green. He made 13, the highest score ever made on any of the holes at Muirfield Village.
He scored 88, still shy of the record high of 92 shot by Roger Maltby in 1979 in a second round that featured 30 mph winds and a wind chill index of 13 degrees.
Dry and Hot is the weather tournament founder Jack Nicklaus always wanted but rarely got, and there were too many comparisons to the US Open except for the generous fairways.
Defending champion Billy Horschel was in a slump, and Muirfield Village was no place to try to break out of it. Horschel got four 6s on his card of 84.
“My confidence is the lowest it’s ever been in my entire career,” Horschel said. “I think so in my entire football career.” “It’s funny, as far as it goes, I feel like I’m not so far away at the same time. Which is crazy when you see me shooting 84 today.”
Wallace, who needs a win this week to avoid the US Open qualifiers, scored his No. 68 in the morning before winds and temperatures rose. Shane Lowry had five consecutive birdies in the morning in relatively calm conditions, but he wasn’t immune from a fast golf course that could punish without warning.
McIlroy was three on his round of the 18th when his drive went to the right—unusual for the shape of that hole—and he was pulling into the sand until he stopped. This was very unusual. The ball was close to belt level and he could hardly make a stand. He did his best to chop it up, clearing the cache and turning it into thick grass.
From there, he grabbed his 9-flyer and cruised over the green to the shaggy hill. His failed putt came out heavy and over the green and his forward pin. His chips were weak. He missed the knockout. And wiping out his triple bogey has an otherwise good day.
Spieth was almost in trouble. At least he was in the sand, but he hit a poor iron 7 that barely got out of the sand, just before McIlroy’s ball. That turned out to be a break, because when Spieth saw what happened to McIlroy’s shot, he went down into a wedge.
It was a flyer, but at least it took a short hop in the sand in front of the green. He moved inches away from the hole—as he did with a birdie from the bunker in No. 10—and escaped with a ghost.
“It’s nice to beat a tough golf course,” said Speth.
Mark Hubbard was also 69 and tried to remind himself that it was a very good result after he finished.
“I guess on paper that wasn’t what I wanted,” said Hubbard, “but I had 5 iron to 16, 7 wood to 17, and 4 iron to 18. Like that’s a bit tough today.” “So I told the caddy that this is the least they’ll ever make me crazy because I’m going to be scared for the last three.”
John Rahm and Adam Scott in their 70s were playing in the morning. Scotty Scheffler never made a putt longer than 6 feet and shot 74. This was his highest first-round opening since Las Vegas in October 2021.
The course average was 74, the highest by a first-rounder at Muirfield Village since 2000. Eight players failed to make a par of 80 – and that doesn’t include Dylan Fritelli, who was 15 through 14 holes when he withdrew due to illness.
Riley’s lone bogey was almost equal to great, from the back vault at 18 to 4 feet, but then he missed the putt. A very good round turned into a great one when he made a 12-foot birdie putt in the 6th, hit a wedge to 4 feet in the 7th from 5, and finished with a 12-foot putt on the 9th hole.
His description of the wedge in No. 7 illustrated the difficulty.
“I got 118 yards doing a touchdown 10 yards off the pin, 30 feet short, skipping all the way there. And the wind was up,” Riley said. “This is probably one of the most challenging problems of the year.”