Adam Hadwin went from favorite to pretender in a flash at last year’s Memorial Tournament.
He finished the first day at Jack’s Place with a 3-under 69 but stumbled on the second day with a 7-over 79 to miss the cut by one stroke. A triple bogey on the third hole and a double bogey on the par-4 ninth hole were the deciding factors in his first nine holes on Friday, when he shot 6-over 42.
“I think I can hit some pretty good shots on this course and get a double score, which is something you just can’t do on a lot of golf courses,” Hadwin said Thursday.
“At the time, I don’t think I was mentally ready to deal with the situation and fight until the end. But now, I feel like my game is getting better. It’s not showing in the results, but I’m moving in the direction I want to go. I think today was the culmination of that.”
Hadwin shot a 6-under 66 on Thursday, the best round of the day at Muirfield Village. He leads Scottie Scheffler by one stroke after the first day and believes he’s mentally stronger this time around in Columbus.
He, too, feels more comfortable.
“Right now I feel pretty comfortable on the golf ball throughout the game, I never felt rushed and I just kept going for birdies. [never] “We’re getting too ahead of ourselves. We’re too comfortable,” Hadwin said.
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“There’s just too little margin for error and too many holes where you think you’ve hit a good shot and it just falls flat. So I feel like I’m in a really good place mentally to deal with it and move on and embrace it. So we’re [Friday]Get ready and see what happens.”
Hadwin quickly rose up the ranks with four birdies in the first seven holes, but a poor start on the par-three eighth hole led to a bogey and a heat check, but the Canadian’s momentum continued over the final nine holes.
He scored four more birdies between the 13th and 17th holes to move to seven under par.
“[Very pleased with] “I’ve got eight birdies around here,” Hadwin added.
“The wind is always tricky. There’s not much room for error on a lot of the holes. I was able to play some good clubs and some good stockyardage that didn’t require me to try too hard. It always feels good.”
But Hadwin stumbled on the 18th hole, missing the green left and losing a stroke. He said the bogey to close “hurt” but still led by one stroke.
“It’s only Thursday and there’s still a lot of golf left. I had a really good round today,” Hadwin said.
“We’ve benefited from Muirfield Village being a little softer after last night’s rain. There are three rounds to go and we’ve been beaten down here before so we know we can get beaten pretty quickly.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
