Memorial Tournament 2020: Bryson DeChambeau’s Collapse Headlines Round 2

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Tony Finau ended his second round at the Memorial Tournament the same way he finished his first: sitting atop the leaderboard.

The only difference on Friday is he’s no longer alone in first place as Ryan Palmer shot a 68 on Day 2 to join him at nine under. 

Friday brought some noticeably lower scores and even more frustration across the rest of the field. Tiger Woods barely made the cut at three over, while Bryson DeChambeau (five over), Rickie Fowler (five over) and Dustin Johnson (16 over) missed it by a surprising margin.

The greens were moving faster, the rough played even deeper and Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, claimed more victims. 

Here’s where things stand heading into Saturday: 

T1. Ryan Palmer (-9)

T1. Tony Finau (-9)

3. Jon Rahm (-8)

T4. Gary Woodland (-6)

T4. Chez Reavie (-6)

T4. Luke List (-6)

7. Jason Day (-5)

T8. Mackenzie Hughes (-4)

T8. Henrik Norlander (-4)

T8. Steve Stricker (-4)

T8. Jim Furyk (-4)

T8. Danny Willett (-4)

T8. Jordan Spieth (-4)

T8. Viktor Hovland (-4)

T8. Patrick Cantlay (-4)

Notables: T16. Justin Thomas (-3), T21. Rory McIlroy (-2), T47. Phil Mickelson (+2), T47. Bubba Watson (+2), T47. Collin Morikawa (+2), T64. Tiger Woods (+3)

Highlights

There may have been worse overall outings on Friday, but no golfer had a more unfortunate series of events play out than DeChambeau had on No. 15 to earn a quintuple-bogey 10.

DeChambeau was assessed three penalties on the hole and had to take two drops before he could escape, berating PGA officials along the way. 

As he was coming up on his eighth stroke, DeChambeau found his third shot resting against a fence in the yard of a home bordering the course. After calling over a rules expert, DeChambeau was informed he could not play the shot and would have to continue on. 

“They’re giving me a garbage ruling like usual,” DeChambeau was heard muttering to himself. 

Even after asking for a second opinion from the PGA, the 26-year-old was forced to play on.

“From my perspective, that would be technically still in,” DeChambeau said, per Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine. “I was wondering if I could hop the fence and hit it?”

The collapse ruined what had been to that point an even-par round and left DeChambeau with a 76 for the day. Fortunately, it helped a few other golfers as it ensured the cut line would stay at three over, allowing Woods—a five-time tournament winner who has never failed to finish the weekend—to make the cut. 

Mackenzie Hughes, at four under, made one of the biggest leaps of the day, jumping 51 spots into the top 10 after a round of 66 that tied with Jason Day, Viktor Hovland, Danny Willett and two others for the lowest score on Friday. 

After recording nine birdies on Day 1, Finau sank five more in his second round, but bogeys on Nos. 10 and 12 kept him from growing his lead.

That allowed Palmer to gain ground with three birdies on the back nine. 

Also alive near the top of the board is Gary Woodland, who went bogey-bogey to start the day but quickly rebounded to finish with a 70 on Friday. 

Saturday’s action begins at 7:45 a.m. ET on PGA Tour Live, with coverage picking up on Golf Channel at 12:30 p.m. ET and continuing on CBS at 3 p.m. ET.