🏌🏻Scheffler vs Schauffele For $20M

Good morning! Round 2 of the Memorial is underway.

There is a chance of rainfall later today but it is unlikely to interrupt play. It promises to be a fascinating contest for $20 million with the likes of Scheffler, Schauffele, Hovland, Aberg, Morikawa and McIlroy all in contention alongside round 1 leader Adam Hadwin.

You can watch the action live on Golf Channel.

Fun Fact: Percentage of rounds the last 3 seasons on the PGA Tour where a player gains 4+ strokes ball striking -
Scottie Scheffler - 10.6%
Rest of the Tour - 1.7%

⛳ This day in history: On this date in 1900, the Open Championship was completed at the Old Course in St. Andrews, won by JH Taylor by eight strokes over Harry Vardon. It was Taylor’s third of five Open victories.

19th Hole
Clubhouse Conversations

ALBATROSS
Stars Dominate The Opening Round @ Muirfield

Adam Hadwin racked up eight birdies to post 6-under 66 and leads World No 1 Scottie Scheffler by one shot after Round 1. Hadwin, 36, is a top-60 player in the world but has just one PGA Tour win to his name, which came back in 2017.

🚀 Stars Chase Hadwin: While Scheffler is 2nd, a number of other big names occupy the top 10 places on the leaderboard.

Xander Schauffele shot a bogey-free 4-under 68 for his first competitive round since winning the PGA Championship last month. He is tied for third with Collin Morikawa, Sweden's Ludvig Aberg and Canada's Corey Conners.

Defending Memorial champion Viktor Hovland of Norway is one of five players tied at 3-under 69, and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland is part of a group at 2-under 70.

🚩 Eyes on the Cut: The Memorial has a 36-hole cut to the top 50 players and ties, in addition to any players within 10 strokes of the 36-hole lead. After Round 1, the top 50 and ties projects at 3-over 75 but with leader Adam Hadwin at 6-under 66, the cut would fall at 4-over 76 - per the 10-shot rule.

Some of the notable names sweating the cutline are Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Rickie Fowler, Sungjae Im and Cameron Young, among others. Players who miss the cut will not receive FedExCup points or prize money.

Watch Round 1 Highlights

TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Day's Unique Strategy To Conquer Memorial

Jason Day has adopted an interesting strategy to succeed this week’s Memorial Tournament. The idea comes from his wife after a poor run of results at his ‘home’ event.

Like many other professional golfers, Day usually travels and stays in Recreational Vehicles (RV) during PGA Tour events. But as a resident of Columbus, Ohio, he has previously managed to stay at home during the Memorial, with Muirfield Village Golf Club only a 30-minute drive from where he lives.

For this year’s event, however, Day has opted against sleeping in his own bed to stay in his motorhome that is parked on his driveway.

Day revealed that his wife suggested he stay in their bus parked in the driveway during the tournament week. She believed he was too relaxed in the past editions which led to poor results and needed more discipline.

📌 Clark Changes Gear...Again: The last time Wyndham Clark changed his driver and putter in the same week, he shot a course-record 60 during the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, en route to winning his third PGA TOUR title. He'll be looking to double down on that success this week at the Memorial Tournament.

Clark has opted to use Titleist’s new GT2 driver during the first week it’s being made available to PGA TOUR players. He is also playing his first event since 2023 without an Odyssey Jailbird putter in the bag.

Clark has switched to a PXG prototype mallet that he used in 2022.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

LPGA Tour: The Amundi Evian Championship has increased its prize money total to $8 million (from $6.5m), with the winner of the major pocketing $1.2 million.

NBC Coverage: Jim 'Bones' Mackay is back on NBC Sports after agreeing a multi-year deal - and he will be part of longer coverage at the upcoming US Open.

Rory's Divorce: Rory McIlroy's divorce process could proceed unopposed as his wife, Erica Stoll, has missed the setup deadline to respond to the pro golfer's court request.

LIV Golf: Maestro Dobel Tequila has signed a multiyear partnership with Jon Rahm's LIV Golf team, Legion XIII. The sides described it as a "strategic alliance" that will see the company become the team's official tequila.

Merger Update: PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and Saudi PIF boss Yasir Al-Rumayyan are reportedly set to meet in New York just after the 12-month anniversary of their historic handshake.

Ryder Cup: Luke Donald has added Paul McGinley to his European Ryder Cup back-up team, giving the Irishman the role of strategic adviser for the away trip to Bethpage Black.

BIRDIE
These Stats Suggest Nelly Korda Isn't the Best Golfer In the World

World No 1 Nelly Korda is proof that you don’t have to be the best at everything to be a prolific winner. Korda’s six wins in her first seven starts on the LPGA in 2024 are accompanied by a set of interesting statistics that reveal the keys to her success and a few surprising weaknesses.

⛳️ Misses More Fairways: With a 74.2% fairways hit average, Korda certainly isn’t the straightest hitter off the tee, in fact she ranks way down in 71st place in the LPGA Tour statistics.

⛳️ Putting Struggles: With 29 putts per round average, she doesn’t even rank in the top 50 putters on the LPGA Tour (at the time of writing she is ranked 61st). Interestingly, and this is a big point to note, the category leader Jeongeun Lee6 only averages one less putt (28 per round) than Korda.

So there’s only one putt between the best and the rest!

⛳️ Par 3s Not Her Forte: Korda is very mediocre on the par 3s averaging 3.02. But she makes up for this on the longer holes.

She is the stats leader in both the par 4 and par 5 stroke averages.

⛳️ Not A Big Hitter: Korda doesn’t even feature in the top 10 big hitters as she ranks 25th, averaging 264 yards off the tee. The long drive accolade goes to American Auston Kim whose average tee shot travels an impressive 277-yards with the big stick.

Read the full article.

DRIVING RANGE
Lower Your Handicap

In today's video, we share simple tips to help you lower your handicap in considerably less time.

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