Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth contending into weekend at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday

DUBLIN, Ohio – Scottie Scheffler doesn’t like dealing in hypotheticals, and he wasn’t about to entertain one Friday regarding the NBA Playoffs. Might he have a rooting interest, perhaps lending his support to the New York Knicks as a native of northern New Jersey?

Not a chance.

“The (Dallas) Mavericks,” Scheffler said Friday of his rooting interest, well aware that his adopted hometown’s NBA team failed to reach the postseason. “No (not watching), not since the Mavs didn’t make it.”

Scheffler rarely leaves room for ambiguity, on or off the course. He’s a generational talent and it’s rare to see him off the leaderboard, particularly as a tournament proceeds. The world No. 1 is a magnet for the front page, and at demanding setups like Muirfield Village, one can expect a cadence where Scheffler hangs around while others get stuck in neutral.

History continues to repeat. Scheffler won last year’s Memorial Tournament presented by Workday, and he’s right in the mix through 36 holes at Muirfield Village in the season’s seventh of eight Signature Events, hosted by Jack Nicklaus.

Scheffler opened in rounds of 70-70 in central Ohio to assume solo fourth place into the weekend at 4-under 140, three strokes behind co-leaders Ben Griffin and Nick Taylor. Akshay Bhatia holds solo third at 5-under. All three players ahead of Scheffler on the Memorial leaderboard have won multiple PGA TOUR events, but neither has won a major championship (let alone three) or reached world No. 1.

Whether or not they’ll admit it, Scheffler’s peers are keenly aware of his position on a leaderboard, as they know he’s unlikely to make a serious mistake. If he does, he’ll usually recover, like on Friday when he rebounded from a double bogey at No. 10 with back-to-back birdies at 11 and 12, both coming from inside 12 feet. Despite ranking in the field’s bottom half in Strokes Gained: Putting (No. 48 of 72 players), Scheffler is well above average in almost every other category. His elite ball-striking, as it usually does, has him within striking distance.

“Solid day. If I holed a few more putts, probably would have been a little bit of a different score,” Scheffler said afterward. “I felt like I was hitting my lines out there and … definitely felt better with my ball striking. So overall, 2-under in these conditions was definitely not a bad score today.”

Scheffler entered the Memorial Tournament on the strength of two wins in his last three starts; he won THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson (by eight strokes) and the PGA Championship (by five strokes) before a fourth-place finish at last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge. On the evening before the opening round at Colonial, he attended the first game of the NHL’s Western Conference Finals between the Edmonton Oilers and his hometown Dallas Stars. (The Stars were eliminated Thursday night, to Scheffler’s dismay.)

Scheffler had likely removed the Stars from his mind before Friday’s second round at Muirfield Village. He had business to tend to, and he took care of it like he so often does.

“It's a very challenging golf course. When the rough gets this wet, any time you hit it in the rough, the lies are going to be really bad and it's going to be really challenging,” Scheffler added. “So it's definitely important to keep the ball in play and try and stay dry.

Scheffler wasn’t the only major-winning Texas Longhorn with a solid opening two days at the Memorial, as Jordan Spieth carded a second-round 69 to get in the house at 3-under 141, four strokes off the midway lead. Spieth hasn’t won on TOUR since the 2022 RBC Heritage, but his game has shown signs of life in 2025. After having wrist surgery late last summer and being sidelined competitively for five months, he entered the Memorial at No. 49 on the FedExCup – but at No. 22 on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total.

At Muirfield Village, Spieth has delivered his typical high entertainment value thus far. Thursday, he went against his caddie Michael Greller’s cautious advice to pitch out sideways from deep rough on the par-5 fifth; he took an aggressive line and advanced the ball to the fairway, then got up and down for birdie. Friday, his tee shot at the par-5 11th found the hazard left of the fairway, and he took off his shoes to consider playing the shot from the bottom part of a steep bank with his feet on wet terrain – then opted to take a drop. He ultimately managed to save par, then played his last seven holes in 3-under to move into a tie for fifth with two rounds remaining.

“I took the drop because I couldn't get a stance,” Spieth explained afterward. “The creek's too deep so I couldn't actually stand in the water. Also I could reach the green, which was a big reason why I took a drop.

“I took my shoes off just to see if I could get in and see if there was like some footing, if the creek was shallow or something. Because I could see the ball, and I could have definitely got a club on it … But it wasn't long; once I got in there, I just didn't have a stance.”

Scheffler will inevitably hang around a leaderboard as a tournament progresses toward Sunday, as his peers have frequently expressed in recent years. It’s trickier to predict Spieth on a weekly basis – but when he’s up there, it’s hard to imagine a more entertaining viewing experience.

With both Scheffler and Spieth in the mix at Muirfield Village – and winds expected to exceed 20 mph on Saturday, adding a layer to the brawny venue – get your popcorn ready.