Friday at the 2026 Memorial Tournament saw carnage up and down the leaderboard. Strong, ever-changing winds, deep rough and increasingly crisp greens at Muirfield Village boosted scores.
The treacherous conditions inspired adjectives like “brutal” and “crazy” from stars like the PGA Tour Tommy Fleetwood AND Justin Thomas (who needed a hug Rory McIlroy after the round), while world no Scottie Scheffler was left with the feeling that he would shoot “about 90”.
Even Ryan Gerard, who shot 69 and sits in second place, said to Muirfield Village“Mentally and physically this place is a monster.”
Justin Thomas on Memorial massacre: ‘Hardest round of golf I can remember’
WHEREAS JT Postonsomehow, someway, managed to shoot an incredible 65 in the 2nd round that gave him a one-shot lead, many stars were just happy to make the cut given Friday’s conditions. Jason Day (76), Jordan Spieth (79) and Rickie Fowler (82) all failed to win times on Saturday.
You can count Thomas among those excited to survive and play the weekend. After finishing his round, Thomas told reporters that it may have been the “hardest round of golf” he had ever played, even counting major championships.
“I can’t put into words how hard it was. It was the hardest round of golf I can remember, big, no big, it was just crazy,” an exhausted Thomas said Friday night in Ohio. “The wind wasn’t really the direction it was supposed to be or it was predicted to be for half the day and that’s not usually something that happens when it’s 25, 20, 25 miles an hour. It was just tough. You don’t have a guarantee on half your shots here, so you’ve got a lot of water, I hope you’re enjoying it. It’s not hurtful, but everybody’s dealing with the same thing, but, man, it was brutal.
He added: “I’m sure it’s bad for all of us.”
Thomas also shared that while he’s glad he made the cut, he’s also glad he doesn’t have to play next week because the brutal conditions have hurt his confidence.
“I mean, if I played next week, no, that would be absolutely horrible. I would be exhausted, I would be, I probably wouldn’t have a lot of confidence in my game. I probably wouldn’t want to do anything next week. So I’m very happy to have a week off next week,” Thomas said.
Thomas finished with a three-over 75, leaving him five over par T47 goes to Memorial weekend. McIlroy finds himself T19 after shooting a 74 on Friday.
The two stars played alongside each other on Friday, and the experience was so difficult that they skipped the post-round handshake and instead consoled each other with a hug after walking onto the final green.
“It was a mutual hug,” Thomas said. “We just looked at each other and I think we both, we were like, we needed a hug. He probably realized I needed one maybe more. It was a grind. It was another fight for him, but, yeah, we were just fighting out there.”
Scottie Scheffler: “I felt like I was going to shoot about 90 today”
If there’s one quote that sums up Friday’s round at this week’s Memorial, it’s this one from Scheffler, the world No. 1 and two-time defending champion.
“I felt like I was going to shoot about 90 today,” Scheffler said Friday night. To be fair, Scheffler was talking more about how bad he was playing than the difficult playing conditions.
“I don’t know if you were out there on the course, but it would be hard to find if you were out watching my group,” Scheffler joked. “I felt like I got my first shot of the day on the 13th hole. I probably had one on 11, but I can’t imagine I hit more than six or seven greens today.”
He added that the tough test Muirfield Village presents exacerbates bad shots.
“So around this golf course, with heavy rough and deep bunkers, you have to hit the ball in the right spots and for a long time today that was definitely not the case for me.”
Of course, everything is relative. Scheffler carded an even-par 72 on Friday that featured three birdies. Only 13 players got better scores in the second round.
Scheffler beat Fleetwood by just one stroke on Friday, but Fleetwood sounded more like Thomas when describing the conditions.
“Yeah, it was pretty brutal, actually. It was tough,” Fleetwood said Friday. “If you can kind of process that the wind could do anything, and on top of it, it was very, very strong, the greens were crunchy now. It was just hard.”
Fleetwood explained that at times the wind was so tricky, he and his partner Cameron Young found themselves playing very different courts from the same spots.
“When you’re on a two-ball, so you can see what the other player is doing and you like, the 10th hole today…Cameron hits the 8-iron from where it was in the fairway and it was 160 yards. and, I mean you didn’t smell it, I played it three yards short, and it looked like it was struggling at one stage, but that’s what the wind did, it was spinning a lot and then you’ve got to pick your poison.
As for Poston’s 65 in the face of brutal winds, Fleetwood said: “That’s phenomenal… how many people made par this afternoon?”
Only 13 for the day, Tommy.
Going into Saturday’s third round at the Memorial, only 11 players are under par.
