The full field is now on the course for Sunday afternoon’s final round of the 2013 Memorial. Matt Kuchar, who played in the final group last week at Colonial, opened his day with a birdie at No. 1 and has had a multi-shot lead throughout the front nine. Kuchar has picked up signature wins in each of the last two seasons, first at The Players and then this year at the WGC-Match Play event. He plays in almost every event and is a good bet to be on the first page of the leaderboard.
Memorial 2013 leaderboard: Tiger Woods continues ugly play, Matt Kuchar extends lead
Two of the top American players on Tour are on opposite ends of the leaderboard, as No. 1 player in the world Tiger Woods opened with an early triple-bogey to continue a disastrous weekend at Muirfield Village.
Scott Halleran
But the lanky Kuchar is still seeking a major championship, and a win at Muirfield Village would set him up nicely for the U.S. Open at Merion in two weeks. He’s 9-under through his first six holes today, good enough for a 2-shot margin over Scott Stallings.
Stallings is on his way to the low-round of the day, reeling off six straight birdies from holes 4 through 10 to move 18 spots up the leaderboard into solo second. Stallings has had an up-and-down season, but like Kuchar, he was in contention last week in Fort Worth. He’ll have less opportunities to chase down the leader, as he’s already on the back side and playing seven groups ahead of the final pairing.
One player who is not in contention is Tiger Woods, the No. 1 player in the world who’s making a run at last place. Woods blew up on Saturday, starting on the back side and turning in a disastrous 44. The record-high nine-hole stretch started at the par-3 12th, where Tiger left his ball in the front bunker and walked off with a double-bogey. He did one worse on Sunday, as the Tour sent groups off split tees and Woods, who was near the bottom of the board, started on No. 10. When he got to his third hole of the day, he put his ball in the sand trap again, and was forced to simply hit across the trap to give himself a shot at the flag. It was the second straight day where Woods had to come out sideways:
Tiger trouble vine.co/v/b3hMFYwdqmx
— Brendan (@BrendanPorath) June 2, 2013
It's never a good sign when you're coming out of a sand trap and aiming 90 degrees away from the pin. It didn't get any better once on the putting surface, and Woods walked off with a triple for another miserable start. He could be on his way to making more of the wrong history on Sunday:
Tiger's worst finish at an event with a cut happens to have been @memorialgolf in 1997. Finished tied 67. Now t-70. Race is on.
— Robert Lusetich (@RobertLusetich) June 2, 2013
Tiger has added two birdies on the outward nine to get back to 10-over for the week, but he’s simply playing out the string as they warm up the private jet. Jimmy Walker’s two quad-bogeys on his opening nine likely ensure Woods will stay out of the cellar, but it’s still an extremely perplexing weekend for the defending champ on a comfortable venue.
On the opposite end from Woods, here’s a current snapshot of the top of the board (along with some notables):
| Place | Player | Score | Thru |
| 1 | Matt Kuchar | -9 | 6 |
| T2 | Scott Stallings | -7 | 11 |
| T2 | Kyle Stanley | -7 | 6 |
| T4 | Matt Jones | -6 | 7 |
| T4 | Justin Rose | -6 | 7 |
| T4 | Kevin Chappell | -6 | 6 |
| 7 | Charl Schwartzel | -5 | 8 |
| T57 | Rory McIlroy | 7 | 9 |
| T68 | Tiger Woods | 10 | 8 |
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