I suppose if golf never had roller coaster moments between the first and second rounds, no one would ever care to tune in. I know the simple fact that you absolutely NEVER know how each golfer will play from day-to-day makes a sport that many have trouble following, a whole lot easier to enjoy. Such is the case here at the Memorial as the roller coaster continues and scores that you expect to be low come in high, and scores that you might expect to be high, come in shockingly low.
Donald Drops, Byrd Rises
Take Luke Donald so far in Round 2. Yesterday he blistered the course and the competition by shooting an opening round 8-under-par to take the lead. What has he followed up that amazing score that included birdies on 8 of his final 9 holes with? So far he’s 3-over through his first 7 holes and has dropped from sole possession of first place to being tied for 5th place at -5. Yikes.
Tiger Woes Continue
Also providing a “yikes” moment was the play of Tiger Woods, who many were tuning into the Memorial hoping they’d see him in “old-Tiger” form and making a charge to take his amazing fourth victory at the Memorial. Those people are going to have to hope a little harder as he followed up his first round 69 with an unfortunate second round score of 74. He’s definitely still in it, however, as he’s currently tied for 28th place as of time of writing and sitting in the clubhouse at -1, only 6 strokes off the current lead. With the projected cut at 3-over-par, I’m sure we’ll be seeing Mr. Woods tomorrow.
Will The Roller Coaster Continue?
What will tomorrow bring? That remains to be seen but if the roller coaster nature of this tournament continues, who knows. We could see Tiger blast his way to the front, we could see Donald come back, we could see current leader Jonathan Byrd continue his impressive performance of 69 and 68 and stay in the lead. Time will tell, all I know is, we’ll be watching.
