Graeme McDowell's hopes of maintaining momentum were dashed somewhat as he struggled to a 73 on the second day of the Workday Charity Open at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio to stand at three under after 36 holes. He now trails the early clubhouse leader Collin Morikawa, the American having added a 66 to his opening 65 for a 13 under total.
After a couple of rain delays stunted his second round, Shane Lowry sits alongside McDowell at three under after a level par round of 72. The Offalyman will be disappointed he didn't make up ground on Friday but did at least manage to finish his second round before play was suspended due to darkness.
McDowell missed the cut in his previous two tournaments last month but demonstrated mettle in the manner in which he mitigated the damage while trying to wrangle an errant game into something he could work with; those redemptive qualities were generally reserved for the greens with a putter in his hand.
The Portrush native, who turns 41 at the end of the month, had hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation during his opening round of four-under 68, but was nowhere near as accurate on a muggy Ohio morning in which he relied heavily on his short game to avert further damage. He had started the day in tie for seventh place.
McDowell’s tepid iron play was evident from the start of his round. Despite hitting the first couple of fairways he failed to find the green on both occasions, forced to get up and down for par. He hit a drive into the right rough on the third and from there had to rely on his short-game skills, making it a hat-trick of single putts.
The fourth, a modest length par-three, didn’t offer the Northern Ireland golfer any respite as he found the greenside trap with his tee shot but once again he got up and down. McDowell took his escapology feats up a notch at the par-five fifth when he put his second shot in the water but managed to pencil in a par, holing from five feet.
As a general rule of thumb single putting for pars has quite a short shelf life and on the sixth he dropped his first shot of the day. He caught a fairway bunker off the tee, came up short of the putting surface with his second and then took three further shots to hole out.
His putter continued to rescue McDowell, draining an eight-footer for par on the next after driving into sand once again while on the eighth he failed to avail of a rare birdie chance from roughly the same distance. He did reclaim the dropped shot with a birdie on the par-five 11th to take him back to where he had started the day on four under par. Unfortunately he missed an even better chance on the next hole.
McDowell’s tee shot came to rest in the right rough on the 13th when the siren signalled both the approaching storm and the cessation of play. Whatever he did during the short rain delay failed to have the desired effect and another wayward iron cost him a bogey.
Yet again he had reason to be grateful for his putting prowess, as he rolled in a couple of 25-footers, for successive birdies and at five under was back inside the Top 10. However, another loose iron, a pull, saw him miss the putting surface on the par-three 16th, the net result a bogey, dropping him back to level par for the day and four under for the tournament.
A bogey on the last, three-putting from 70 feet, encapsulated a disappointing day.
Latest second round scores in the Workday Charity Open, Muirfield Village GC, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 72):
Round 2 suspended due to darkness:
131 Collin Morikawa 65 66
134 Justin Thomas 68 66, Kevin Streelman 70 64
135 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 67 68, Sam Burns 69 66
136 Viktor Hovland (Nor) 69 67
137 Chase Seiffert 68 69, Ian Poulter (Eng) 68 69
138 Richy Werenski 71 67, Matt Kuchar 69 69, Nick Taylor (Can) 67 71, Patrick Reed 68 70
139 Brendan Steele 69 70, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 70 69, Talor Gooch 71 68, Adam Hadwin (Can) 66 73
140 Peter Malnati 68 72, Jason Day (Aus) 69 71, Keegan Bradley 69 71, Russell Henley 70 70, Austin Cook 70 70, Corey Conners (Can) 71 69
141 Matt Jones (Aus) 69 72, Roger Sloan (Can) 68 73, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 68 73, Gary Woodland 73 68, Stewart Cink 72 69, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 69 72, Adam Long 68 73, Shane Lowry (Irl) 69 72, Billy Horschel 72 69, Troy Merritt 69 72, Rickie Fowler 72 69
142 Adam Schenk 72 70, Matt Wallace (Eng) 72 70, Andrew Putnam 69 73, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 74 68, Charley Hoffman 74 68, Scott Stallings 74 68, Brian Gay 71 71, Patrick Cantlay 70 72, Cameron Champ 70 72, Bronson Burgoon 74 68, Jon Rahm (Spa) 72 70, Chris Stroud 71 71, Xander Schauffele 69 73, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor) 71 71, Phil Mickelson 73 69, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 73 69, Sungjae Im (Kor) 72 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 73 69
143 Brooks Koepka 74 69, Max Homa 72 71, Hudson Swafford 69 74, Jim Furyk 75 68, Kyle Stanley 72 71, Aaron Wise 67 76, Brandt Snedeker 72 71
144 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 71, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 76 68, Cameron Davis (Aus) 73 71, Vijay Singh (Fij) 75 69, Sebastian Cappelen (Den) 74 70, Scottie Scheffler 72 72, Ryan Armour 72 72, Luke Donald (Eng) 75 69, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 72 72, Jordan Spieth 72 72
145 David Hearn (Can) 71 74, Lanto Griffin 70 75, Charles Howell III 71 74, Michael Thompson 72 73, Hank Lebioda 71 74, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 71 74, James Hahn 75 70, Patrick Rodgers 76 69, Sebastian , Munoz (Col) 79 66, Russell Knox (Sco) 73 72
146 Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 72 74, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 70 76
147 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 74 73, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 74 73, Bud Cauley 71 76, Sung Kang (Kor) 70 77, Robert Streb 72 75, Jamie Lovemark 75 72, Tom Hoge 73 74
148 Brian Stuard 75 73, Luke List 69 79, Maverick McNealy 72 76, Patton Kizzire 73 75, Joseph Bramlett 75 73, Michael Kim 71 77, Nate Lashley 72 76
149 Matthew Wolff 72 77, Matthew NeSmith 70 79, Andrew Landry 75 74, Marc Leishman (Aus) 72 77, D.J. Trahan 77 72
150 Brandon Wu 73 77, Ted Potter, Jr. 74 76, Robby Shelton 74 76, Davis Love III 74 76, Jim Herman 75 75
151 Beau Hossler 76 75, Martin Trainer 77 74
152 Harry Higgs 73 79, Bubba Watson 79 73
153 Zac Blair 76 77
154 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 75 79, Justin Rose (Eng) 74 80, Keith Mitchell 78 76
155 Donnie Trosper 75 80
158 Ryan Palmer 77 81
