Justin Suh shook off a late bogey with a birdie at 18 to grab a one-shot lead ahead of former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama at the Memorial tournament on Friday.
Suh, a 25-year-old Californian chasing a first PGA Tour title, had seven birdies in his six-under-par 66 and a 36-hole total of eight-under 136.
That put him one in front of Matsuyama, the 2014 Memorial winner who set an early target with a bogey-free seven-under-par 65 for 137.
Suh had climbed the leaderboard with three front-nine birdies, including a 20-footer at the 5th. He tied Matsuyama on seven under with a 17-foot birdie putt at the 14th and took the solo lead with a birdie at the 15th.
But he was unable to get up and down from a greenside bunker at the par-three 16th, dropping back into a tie before rolling in a nine-foot putt for a textbook birdie at the last.
Suh said holing a 16-foot putt from off the green at the opening hole was crucial to the round in difficult conditions at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
“That was a big momentum swinger just off the bat,” he said. “For that to go in, I thought it just kind of put a little more pep in my step for the next 17 holes.”
Suh has plenty of star talent on his heels heading into the weekend, with Matsuyama one stroke clear of world No 4 and two-time Memorial winner Patrick Cantlay, who was tied on six under with David Lipsky.
Reigning Masters champion Jon Rahm, the world No 2, carded a 68 to join a group on four under that also featured third-ranked Rory McIlroy.
South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout carded a second-round 70 to go into the weekend on one-under-par 143 (T22) with countryman Garrick Higgo (73) a further shot behind.
MJ Daffue, Aldrich Potgieter and Thriston Lawrence all missed the cut, while Dylan Frittelli withdrew due to illness after 14 rounds on Thursday when 15 over.
Matsuyama, who has two other top 10 finishes at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial in addition to his victory, said putting was the key to his sizzling round.
He birdied three of his last four holes, including a 25-foot birdie at the 7th and a 33-footer at the 8th.
“To make those putts at 7 and 8 were huge,” said Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion who has struggled with a neck injury over the past year and has just one top-five finish in the last four months.
McIlroy rebounded from a triple-bogey on 18 on Thursday to card a four-under-par 68, and said it wasn’t difficult to refocus.
“I got one bad break on 18 with that ball finishing on the bank of the bunker,” McIlroy said of his first-round effort. “I felt like I did a lot of really good things [Thursday] so I can’t let that one sort of unlucky break sort of hide the fact that everything else was working pretty well.”
Rahm, who could overtake Scottie Scheffler atop the world rankings with a victory this week, joined the group on four-under 140 with his second straight 70.
“I feel really comfortable tee to green all day,” said Rahm, who opened with back-to-back bogeys but had four birdies the rest of the way. “Hit a lot of good putts that just didn’t go in.
“But I always like to think that things usually even out and we kind of guessed the wind very well on 16 and made three really good putts on 15, 17 and 18 to post a really good score.”
Scheffler, meanwhile, struggled for the second straight day, making the cut on the number at three-over after a one-over-par 73.
© Agence France-Presse
