DUBLIN, Ohio – When former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover pulled up to the front gate at Muirfield Village Golf Club this week, he asked the attendant how he was doing.
“He said, ‘If I was any happier, I’d be dancing.’ I’d never heard that one before,” Glover said. “And then he followed that up by saying, ‘And nobody wants that, trust me.’ ”
On a warm, sunny Thursday at the Memorial, Englishman Matt Wallace danced around Jack’s Place to the tune of 4-under 68, the lowest score in the morning wave by a stroke over a handful of players.
Wallace, 33, hasn’t been too happy with his game of late. After notching his first PGA Tour win at the Corales Puntacana Championship in late March, he has missed the cut in five of his last seven cuts, including last week. But he took advantage of calm conditions in the morning and birdied five of his first nine holes, including sinking a 23-foot putt at the fifth hole.
When asked to describe where he was in the process of becoming the player he wants to be, Wallace said, “Close. Not there. I’m waiting for that Tiger moment. That, ‘Hello world,’ one. I feel my game is there to be able to compete with the best, I just haven’t done it and I haven’t shown that.”
But for one day, at least, Wallace coasted around the course designed by golf great Jack Nicklaus in his lowest score in seven total rounds here. The rest of the field found it to be tough sledding, including world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who opened with 74, and Jason Day, who shot 76.
“I was on the 17th green there and I felt, this is what Jon Rahm does, these types of days. It must feel really nice,” Wallace recounted. “And I was like, yeah, it feels really good. Because I was playing great. So he does it a lot more times than I do. So that’s what I want to try and do. If I can keep doing that, I know that I can win when I’m in position to win. So try and do that a little bit more.”
Jon Rahm lines up a putt on the 17th green during the first round of the 2023 Memorial Tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports)
Rahm, the world No. 2 and the Memorial champion in 2020, may not have been doing the Rumba over his opening-round 2-under 70, but said he was pleased as punch with his start.
“It’s too bad I couldn’t take advantage of the, let’s say, easier conditions on the front nine. There was no wind, great temperature, perfect greens. Gave myself chances and couldn’t convert a couple of them,” said Rahm, who needed 31 strokes with his short stick. “I think it’s a really good round of golf that if a couple putts dropped could have been a really good one.”
Rahm held a six-stroke lead heading into the final round in 2021 after posting a third-round 64, but had to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. But the first time he played at Muirfield Village in 2017, he shot 73-77 to miss the cut and complained afterwards to his caddie Adam Hayes.
“I think I told Adam, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m ever going back to that golf course.’ And he was telling me, ‘You’re going to go back and you’re going to love it. You are tailor made for that golf course.’ And, funny enough, the next time we came was 2020. It was when we had two weeks in a row here. So the Workday event I didn’t play my best, but I finished Sunday with a 64 and that kind of got me going towards the following week and won.”
Mark Hubbard and Shane Lowry danced to the top of the leaderboard but lost their rhythm and were among five golfers at 69. Hubbard climbed to 6 under through 15 holes but made bogeys on his final three holes.
“I told my caddie that’s the least mad I’m ever going to be bogeying the last three,” he said. “I mean, 17 basically felt like a par. I shot 69 for the fifth straight round. So that’s pretty cool.”
Lowry, who started on the back nine, made five birdies in a row beginning at 11 but only one the rest of the day.
“I rolled in some lovely putts early on. You’re not going to keep that going all day. I had a couple of slip ups, but, you know, you’re going to make bogeys around this course after hitting bad shots,” Lowry said. “I said to my caddie walking there on 5 or 6 that it’s important not to get down on myself after making a few bogeys; 3 under’s a pretty good score around here. I’m pretty happy with my start.”
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