Memorial Tournament: big names shoot high scores on Thursday

It only took a few holes for PGA Tour standouts Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Xander Schauffele to eliminate themselves from contention at the Memorial Tournament.

In the first round of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday, some of the biggest names on the PGA Tour found themselves near the bottom of the leaderboard. Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson and Xander Schauffele all struggled mightily on day one of the event.

Johnson, a winner two weeks ago at the Travelers Championship, got off to a terrible start on Thursday at the Memorial. Johnson became the latest player to play terribly when picked to win by yours truly prior to the tournament.

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DJ’s round got off to a roller coaster start. Playing the back nine first, he double bogeyed the 10th hole, followed by a birdie on 11. However, he hit a ball in the water at 12 and took another double bogey before bouncing back with a birdie on the 13th hole. From there, five straight pars gave him a 3-over par 39 on his first nine.

Johnson would par the first hole before a birdie on the second hole got him to 2-over for the day. But, as he did on the front nine, he double bogeyed the third hole. And this time, there would be no bounce back. DJ recorded four bogeys to finish his round with an 8-over par 80. Yikes.

Schauffele’s round didn’t immediately go downhill, but it didn’t take long. After opening with four straight pars, he went bogey, par, double bogey, bogey, bogey to shoot a 6-over par 42 on the back nine, his first nine.

The second nine started with a par on number one, then a bogey on two, a par on three and a bogey on four. At that point, Schauffele was 8-over par. To his credit, he did birdie the fifth and seventh holes and would finish with a 6-over par 78.

For Watson, it was a repeat of last weekend, when he struggled out of the gate at the Workday Charity Open. Much like what happened on Thursday last week, Watson found himself in a hole early and was never able to dig out of it.

Watson parred the first two holes before back-to-back bogeys on three and four left him at 2-over par. He parred number five before a double bogey on number six left him at 4-over par. He would bounce back with a birdie at number seven, but a bogey on number nine left him a 4-over par making the turn.

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After a par at 10, Watson bogeyed the next two holes to slip to 6-over par. After two birdies, two bogeys and two pars to finish, Watson found himself with a 6-over par 78.

These three players have likely eliminated themselves from playing the weekend at Muirfield Village. And it only took a few holes for them to do so.

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