Ben Griffin (-7), one of the most in-form players on the PGA Tour at this stage of the season, coming off a top 10 finish at the PGA Championship and a win last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, was feeling very confident… He started as co-leader of the leaderboard in the third round of the Memorial Tournament at the Muirfield Village Golf Club, a course difficult to tame, especially when the wind blows like it did this Saturday. And just as he was about to reach the halfway point of his round, he found himself very high up with a comfortable lead on the leaderboard…
After making three consecutive birdies on the 6th, 7th, and 8th, he became the first player this week to reach double digits under par, with a tremendous 10 under that seemed to propel him towards his second consecutive victory on the tour. But then he looked in the rear-view mirror and there appeared the gigantic figure of Scottie Scheffler (-8), the undisputed Number One in the world, to spoil his afternoon to the point of, at the last moment, even snatching the first place with just 18 holes to go.
Ben Griffin has led/co-led the past five rounds in a row on TOUR … 🤯
He currently leads by FIVE @MemorialGolf. pic.twitter.com/R5QH9cLQuq
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 31, 2025
The North Carolinian, upon teeing off on the 9th, began a disastrous series of four consecutive bogeys that gave life to both Scottie and players like Nick Taylor (-5), who had started ‘moving day’ as co-leader and quickly fell back with two consecutive bogeys on the 1st and 2nd, Sepp Straka (-3), who made six birdies for the second consecutive day, or even Jordan Spieth (-3), who at times brushed the lead but closed his round with two painful bogeys on the last two flags to slightly distance himself from the fight.
Scheffler took time to react to the leader’s collapse. He closed his first nine with nine pars, something quite unusual for him, missing a couple of makeable birdie putts for a player of his level despite the undeniable difficulty of the very undulating greens. And he continued like this on his first four flags of the second half of the course. But from the 14th, as if reserving himself for the decisive moment, he began his recital with four birdies in his last five holes, with which he managed to catch up with Griffin and head to the Clubhouse to submit his card as the apparent co-leader…
On the 14th, he holed it from just over three metres, on the 15th he nearly eagled, on the 17th he didn’t miss a putt from just under three metres, and on the 18th, to complete the series, he sank another good putt, this time from over four metres. Everything that hadn’t gone in during the first nine was now resolved with astonishing ease. He seemed to wish the course had a couple more holes to leave the tournament almost decided… The things Scottie does when his putter ‘heats up’, because in the rest of the game aspects he doesn’t forgive (the best in greens in regulation, the best in scrambling…)
Here comes Scottie …
The 15-time TOUR winner grabs the co-lead after this birdie on the last @MemorialGolf. pic.twitter.com/YLVPzunIpw
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) May 31, 2025
Ben had a couple of holes left to play. He handled the 17th without complications, making par. And on the 18th, after going into the fairway bunker from the tee and recovering to the sand again, he seemed to have resolved the situation with a precise shot stopping the ball just over a metre from the cup. But a day that at times seemed perfect for him turned completely when he missed the putt to the left, handing Scheffler the lead heading into Sunday in Dublin, Ohio.
The Number One in the world will start as the solo leader in the final round of this Memorial Tournament, and it won’t be easy for either Griffin or Taylor, who seem the only two with a chance, to challenge him for what would be his third victory of the season after the CJ Cup Byron Nelson and the PGA Championship. Good old Ben was feeling very confident, but when Scottie is on the course, these things can and often do happen… Now he has 18 holes ahead to try to get it back.
