McIlroy and Lowry stutter at Memorial

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry both endured frustration on the back nine as their second rounds unravelled at Muirfield Village’s Memorial Tournament.

Lowry was going great guns on the front nine with two birdies on the first and seventh as he muscled his way into contention on four-under but a horror run of bogey, double bogey and bogey on the 10th, 11th and 12th looked to have put paid to his chances of a first victory since 2022.

However, the Offaly man rallied superbly with birdies on 13, 15 and 16. That looked to have revived his challenge and at three-under he looked well placed going into the weekend. A superb pitch from left of the 18th green stopped two and a half feet by the hole and what looked a cast iron par turned into a disaster. Lowry knocked his par attempt seven feet past the hole and missed the return stroke to card the most bizarre of double bogeys.

Amazingly, he is still 9th on one-under after a 73 but is eight shots adrift of JT Poston.

McIlroy was also in good shape early in his round after two birdies in his opening five holes. But he lost ground with a bogey on 8 and double bogey on 13. Although he birdied the 14th he couldn’t birdie the par-5 15th and compounded his lack of momentum with a three-putt bogey on 16 and a bogey on 17 to slump to a 74 for a one-over total.

At ten shots back it looks as if McIlroy’s winless run at Jack’s place will continue.

At the summit, Poston carded a superb 65 to take a one shot lead over Ryan Gerard on nine-under. Sam Burns is three back on six-under while Tommy Fleetwood leads the European charge in fourth on four-under after a 73.

World number one Scottie Scheffler has had a difficult week and his bid to become the first player to win this event three times in a row since Tiger Woods in 2001 appears unlikely after a 72 left him on one-over.

Scheffler was three-over through ten holes but finished strong with birdies on 13, 15 and 16 to keep his cut streak alive. He has made the cut in 76 consecutive PGA Tour events, a run that stretches back to 2022.

“I was in the rough or off the green on basically every single hole until about the 13th,” said Scheffler, who hit just three greens in regulation in his first 12 holes but still shot 72. “I felt like I was going to shoot about 90 today.

“That’s maybe some of the worst I’ve hit it in a couple of years out there, and I still managed to shoot even par… I’m definitely very proud of stuff like that.”