Shane Lowry remains four shots off the pace at the halfway stage of the Memorial Tournament after he dug deep to stay in contention at Muirfield Village.
A superb two-putt from 66 feet on the last wasn’t even the height of his battling qualities as the Offaly man ground out a round of 72 to lie in a share of fifth place alongside Jordan Spieth and Sam Burns on three-under, four shots behind Ben Griffin and Nick Taylor.
Lowry birdied the par fives 5th and 11th to cancel out bogeys on the 9th and 12th.
The 2019 Open champion did not have his A game at all on Friday. Having led the field in strokes gained approach to the green in round one, Lowry was 51st in that category while he also had a cold putter.
His touch around the greens remained intact though as he kept the disasters off the card.
World number one and PGA champion Scottie Scheffler lurks ominously on four-under.
The defending champion carded back to back rounds of 70 to lie in fourth place while Akshay Bhatia is a shot closer on five-under after a 69.
“Solid day,” Scheffler said. “If I holed a few more putts, it probably would have been a little bit of a different score.
“I felt like I was hitting my lines out there and did a good job of hitting a lot more fairways today.
“Definitely felt better with my ball striking. So overall, two-under in these conditions was definitely not a bad score today.”
Ben Griffin holds his second 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour this season and he won’t have to delve too far into the memory bank for his last one having converted for victory last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge for his maiden individual PGA Tour win.
Griffin is looking for his third win this season after also winning with Andrew Novak in the Zurich Classic.
“I always said, once I got my first win, it would free me up a tonne,” Griffin said. “My mindset’s never changed from before I’ve won to now. But I’d say I just feel so much more confident in myself and my ability that I’ve gotten it done.“
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