Bhatia rises to third at the Memorial, Scheffler is fourth

Indian-American golfer Akshay Bhatia carded a 3-under 69 in the second round to climb to third place at the Memorial Tournament, putting himself in strong contention at the halfway stage. Bhatia, who is looking for a PGA Tour win for the third year running and was T-7 after the first round, is now 5-under. Bhatia has had five Top-10 finishes between November and March but hasn't been able to finish that close since his third place at the Players.

The World No. 31 had five birdies against two bogeys, which came in the middle of the round on the ninth and the 11th. Two of his birdies came with putts of 28 feet on the third and a 22-footer on the 12th. He had a good all-round showing finding 10 of the 14 fairways and 12 of the Greens in regulation and when he did miss the fairway or the green, he scrambled well.

Bhatia trailed the in-form Ben Griffin (65-72) and Nick Taylor (69-66) who are both co-leading at 7-under. Bhatia was two shots behind the leaders and was followed by defending champion Scottie Scheffler, who carded his second consecutive 2-under 70. Scheffler missed a trio of birdie chances inside 10 feet on the front nine and also hit a wedge into the water on the 14th for bogey.

Indian-American Sahith Theegala coming back to action after missing a week due to neck strain, missed the cut with rounds of 74-77 as only Top-50 and ties made the weekend from a field of 72. Also missing out was Indo-British Aaron Rai (79-74) Taylor had a great day as he putted for a birdie on all but one hole and kept bogeys off his card. He had a 4-under 68. He faced the worst of the weather, a rain that wouldn't stop.

Griffin caught a slight break in the afternoon when the rain relented and Muirfield Village was soft. He had 16 pars, a birdie and a bogey for a 72 that put him at 7-under 137. Signature Events normally do not have a cut, but player hosted events, Jack Nicklaus in this case, have a 36-hole with Top-50 and ties moving into the final two rounds. The cut fell at 5-over 149, and that included Hideki Matsuyama. Only 11 players remained under par. PTI