DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Scottie Scheffler was 10 shots behind after two rounds at the Memorial, a tournament he has won the last two years. He felt like he could have shot 90. He hit a shank out of the bunker. He said it was as bad as he has hit the ball in some two years.
And there was part of him feeling rather pleased to sign for a 72.
“That’s maybe some of the worst I’ve hit it in a couple years out there and I still managed to shoot even par around a golf course that requires to you strike the ball really well,” Scheffler said Friday. “Yeah, I’m definitely very proud of stuff like that. This tournament was one that definitely could have got away from me.”
That he managed a 72 was remarkable considering the places he found himself at Muirfield Village, which was practically everywhere but fairways and greens. It was an odd sight, particularly at a tournament where he is trying to match Tiger Woods as the only players to win three in a row.
He has hit 15 greens in regulation through 36 holes. He usually hits that many in one round.
He missed one green from about 15 feet away. That was the shank out of a bunker, something he hasn't done since the Tour Championship two years ago. Scheffler had to scramble to save par from 7 feet, and another key par came on the par-4 third when he missed his tee shot so far to the right his only option was to pitch back to the fairway.
But he kept saving par until he ran off three straight bogeys around the turn, and suddenly he was close to the cut line — the Memorial cuts to the top 50 and ties — with little evidence it was about to turn around. Scheffler is now at 76 consecutive cuts dating to August 2022.
“I felt like I was going to shoot about 90 today,” Scheffler said. “I don’t know if you were out there on the course, but I was going to be hard to find if you were out watching my group. I felt like I got my first birdie putt of the day on the 13th hole. I couldn’t imagine I hit more than six or seven greens today. So around this golf course, with heavy rough and deep bunkers, you got to be hitting the ball in the right spots and for a long time today that was definitely not the case for me.”
And then it was — a wedge to 3 feet for birdie on the 13th, a 20-foot birdie putt on the 15th, another birdie from 40 feet on the 16th and two tough pars to finish.
He was nine shots behind when he finished, 10 shots back when J.T. Poston shot 65 to lead.
This is Scheffler's final tournament before the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, the only major keeping him from the career Grand Slam. Muirfield Village is nothing like Shinnecock except for the punishment it can dole out if players get out of position, and how exhausting the rounds feel.
He didn't look like the No. 1 player for 12 holes but was much better over the last six. What led to the turnaround?
“I'm about to go find out,” Scheffler said.
With that, he headed to the range.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Scottie Scheffler hits from the 15th tee during the second round of the Memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Scottie Scheffler, right, and his caddie Ted Scott look our from the 15th tee during the second round of the Memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
Scottie Scheffler pauses on the 14th green during the second round of the Memorial golf tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops killed a seven-month-old Palestinian baby boy after firing at his parents’ vehicle in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said.
Sam Fahd Abu Haikal was killed Friday evening, and his parents were wounded while driving in the Tel Rumeida area south of Hebron City, according to the ministry.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said the infant was critically wounded after being struck in the face by the same bullet that injured his mother. He later died of his injuries. His father, Fahd Abu Haikal, a lecturer at Bethlehem University, was shot in the hand. They were traveling from Bethlehem to visit family in Hebron when soldiers opened fire, the agency reported.
Israel’s military has scaled up military operations in the West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed some 1,200 people and took 251 people hostage, which triggered the war in Gaza. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has so far killed more than 72,900 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, is generally seen as reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts.
The United Nations said last month that more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, at least 240 of them children. Forty-nine people have been killed since the start of this year, it said.
The Israeli military said Friday an initial inquiry found that the injured were uninvolved civilians and said the situation is under review. It also said soldiers shot at a vehicle that was perceived to be accelerating toward them in the Hebron area. It said soldiers responded with single shots, wounding three Palestinians who were evacuated for medical treatment.
At Al-Ahly Hospital in Hebron, the baby’s father told Associated Press reporters that a bullet struck the car’s windshield before piercing his hand, then his son and wife.
“It entered the child’s face on the right side and exited on the left, then passed directly into his mother’s face and exited on the other side, with shrapnel lodged near her heart,” Abu Haikal said.
The mother is in critical condition because there’s shrapnel close to her heart, he said. They haven’t told her yet that her son, who turned seven months old on Friday, was killed.
The baby’s grandmother, Feryal Abu Heikal, was in the car during the shooting and said they were driving near a checkpoint and stopped when they saw Israeli military vehicles and soldiers in the distance. As the forces fired at them, she initially thought it was warning shots before they were struck, she said.
“The scene was horrific to see a seven-month-old baby with a smashed face,” she said. “What kind of army in the world does this? ... What happened to my grandson can’t be easily forgotten."
The infant’s funeral is expected later Saturday.
In March, Israeli soldiers fired on a car carrying a family in the northern West Bank, killing four people, including two children, the Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry said at the time.
Israeli soldiers accused of harming Palestinians are rarely penalized and were indicted in fewer than 1% of cases based on 2,427 complaints alleging wrongdoing between 2016 and 2024, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.
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Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt and Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Fahd Abu Heikal, 41 displays a mobile photo of his seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents in Tel Rumeida, at a hospital in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A man inspects the shattered family vehicle of seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam Fahd Abu Heikal, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents, in Tel Rumeida, in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A bullet hole is seen at the windshield of the shattered family vehicle of seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam Fahd Abu Heikal, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents, in Tel Rumeida, in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Child care bag of seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam Fahd Abu Heikal, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents in Tel Rumeida, at the shattered family vehicle in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Fahd Abu Heikal, 41 displays a mobile photo of his seven month old Palestinian baby boy Sam, who was killed on Friday when Israeli soldiers fired at the vehicle carrying him and his parents, in Tel Rumeida, at a hospital in the West Bank city of Hebron Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
