WATCH: Jordan Spieth scores an adventurous birdie during a roller-coaster round at the 2024 Memorial Tournament
Jordan Spieth played the first round of the 2024 Memorial Tournament on Thursday, June 6, at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Spieth showed his great technical quality at times during the round, although he was not as fortunate in others.
One of his stellar plays of the day came on the ninth hole, where he made an adventurous birdie. The play was broadcast on television, and the video clip was posted by the PGA Tour's X (formerly Twitter) account. The post reached more than 94,000 views in two hours.
The ninth hole is a 416-yard, par 4. Jordan Spieth sent his tee shot 291 yards into the right rough, but the ball ended up under some trees that partially blocked the path to the green.
Spieth opted to look for the green by flying over the trees in front of him and hit a shot of such quality that he left the ball on the green 21 feet from the hole. It was a long putt, but Spieth made it cleanly to save birdie.
Jordan Spieth's first round at the Memorial Tournament at a glance
Jordan Spieth had an up and down first round at the 2024 Memorial Tournament. He started with par on his first two holes and bogeyed the third. Then came two more holes with a par score, and another bogey on the sixth.
However, Spieth improved his round with an eagle on the 587-yard, par-5 seventh hole. The three-time major champion hit the fairway with his tee shot and then reached the green with a 280-yard second shot. He made the eagle by holing an 11-foot putt.
On the eighth, Spieth again made bogey after failing to reach the green with his second shot. On the ninth, he saved birdie in the manner described above and made consecutive bogeys on the 10th and 11th.
From there, Spieth found a steady pace for the remainder of the round, making par on his final seven holes. His round score was 2 over and he placed T44.
Adam Hadwin leads the Memorial Tournament with a score of 6 under. Scottie Scheffler is second one stroke behind, while Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Corey Conners and Collin Morikawa are tied for third (4 under).