After Thursday’s first round of the Memorial Tournament, the field was looking up at Ben Griffin ($7,800; 75.5 FPTS), who shot a -7 (65). He now has company at the top after shooting an even-par (72).
The front nine was clean, but with no birdies. Griffin bogeyed the first hole of the back nine, but got it right back with a birdie on the next hole.
In the $800K Summer Sand Trap tournament, Griffin is rostered on only 6.92% of teams.
DraftKings Sportsbook had Griffin at +500 to win it all, the third-lowest odds, and -340 to finish Top 10 after Thursday. After Friday’s round, Griffin is +400 to win it all and -550 to finish top 10.
Joining him at the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend is Nick Taylor ($6,500; 76.5 FPTS). Taylor shot a -3 (69) on Thursday then went -4 (68) on Friday.
On the front nine, Taylor drained three birdies. He had one birdie on the back nine and ended with an unblemished round.
Taylor is rostered on only 3% of teams. DK Sportsbook has Taylor at +600 to win it all, the third-lowest odds, and -400 to finish in the top 10.
The most rostered golfer is Scottie Scheffler ($13,300; 52 FPTS) at a whopping 42.24%. The next-highest is Collin Morikawa ($9,900; 43.5 FPTS) at 22.15%.
Scheffler went -2 (70) on both Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, he had two birdies and a bogey on both the front and back nines. On Friday, he notched three birdies on the front nine. The back nine started ominously with a double-bogey, but he got those strokes right back with two birdies on the next two holes. Unfortunately, he had another bogey to close out the round. Scheffler is -4 for the tournament and only three strokes off the lead.
He was the favorite to win it all at +240 and -750 to finish top 10 after Thursday. After Friday, he is now the favorite at +175 and -1600 to finish top 10.
Morikawa played well on Thursday, going -5 (67) with six birdies and a lone bogey. Friday was a much different story. The front nine was decent with two birdies and a bogey. The back nine was trouble, though. He bogeyed the first hole, then had two double-bogeys sandwiched around a birdie to finish +3 (75). Morikawa is -2 for the tournament and currently T8, five strokes off the lead.
Morikawa was +400 to win it all, the second-lowest odds, and -400 to finish top 10 after Thursday. He is now +1400 to win it all and -190 to finish top 10.
Here are the golfers rostered on at least 10% of teams that missed the +5 cut:
J.T. Poston ($7,600; 10.5 FPTS) is rostered on 13.94% of teams. After shooting a +5 (77) on Thursday, Poston went +4 (76) on Friday to miss the cut by four strokes. Friday’s front nine was brutal. He bogeyed the first and last holes. In between, he had three more bogeys with a birdie in the middle.
Daniel Berger ($8,600; 16.5 FPTS) is rostered on 11.92% of teams. Berger’s tournament was essentially over after Thursday’s +9 (81). On Friday, he played much better with two birdies on the front nine. Things remained status quo until Hole 15, when he went double-bogey, birdie and bogey to finish the round. He finished even-par (72) and missed the cut by four strokes.
Aaron Rai ($7,600; 19 FPTS) is rostered on 13.54% of teams. Rai went +7 (79) on Thursday. On Friday, he went +2 (74) and missed the cut by four strokes. On the front nine on Friday, Rai had a double-bogey, birdie and bogey. On the back nine, he notched a bogey and a birdie.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout ($6,900; 17 FPTS) is rostered on 10.66% of teams. Bezuidenhout looked to be in good shape after Thursday’s +2 (74). Unfortunately, Friday’s round started off with a double-bogey then continued to snowball with three more bogeys on the front nine. After bogeying the first hole of the back nine, the avalanche continued with a double-bogey and bogey on the next two holes. He did rack up three birdies to close out the back nine, but it was too little too late. Bezuidenhout finished the tournament +8, missing the cut by three strokes.
J.J. Spaun ($7,500; 18.5 FPTS) is rostered on 14.61% of teams. Spaun went +4 (76) on Thursday. Friday did not start off well, with two bogeys in the first three holes. He got a stroke back with a birdie two holes later but racked up another bogey on the next hole. Spaun was able to close out the front nine with a birdie. The positive momentum wasn’t carried over to the back nine as he bogeyed the first hole. He racked up another one three holes later before getting a stroke back with a birdie on Hole 15. Spaun missed the cut by one stroke.
