Three pars to start the first round turned out to be the highlight of Dylan Frittelli’s rough outing Thursday at the Memorial Tournament.
The South African withdrew after falling to 15 over par through 14 holes at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. He cited illness as the reason for his exit.
After playing even through three par-4 holes on Thursday, Frittelli bogeyed the par-3 No. 4 and the par-5 No. 5 before his lone birdie. He sank a 6-foot, 8-inch putt at the par-4 No. 6 to improve to 1 over.
A bogey 6 at No. 7 and a final par at No. 8 were the calm before the storm. Frittelli made double bogey, triple, triple and double at Nos. 9-12. His tee shots at Nos. 10-12 all went either out of bounds or into a water hazard.
A bogey at No. 13 was followed by a double bogey at No. 14 and a running total of 15 over with four holes remaining when he called it a day.
The 2019 John Deere Classic winner, Frittelli, 32, has struggled this season on the PGA Tour with 13 missed cuts and only two top-25 finishes in 22 events entering this week.
He also has three withdrawals. He departed the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February after going 11 over through two rounds before the 54-hole cut, and the RBC Heritage in April after an opening-round 80.
He has made one cut since the end of February at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans — a team event — where he tied for 26th on April 23.
The former University of Texas golfer is ranked 227th in the Official World Golf Ranking and is 136th in the FedEx Cup standings.
–Field Level Media