With Room at the Top, Jostling Begins at the Memorial

June 2, 2016

By KAREN CROUSE

DUBLIN, Ohio — The N.B.A. finals is billed as the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James versus the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry. Yet when these teams met for the title last year, the Warriors' Andre Iguodala emerged as the Most Valuable Player. It is what makes sports so compelling: The result is what happens after everyone has written the ending.

This week's Memorial Tournament, a two-hour drive from King James's commonwealth, opened Thursday and featured the top three golfers in the world: Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Each is coming off a victory: Day at the Players, McIlroy at the Irish Open and Spieth at the P.G.A. Tour stop in Fort Worth, lending credence to their designation as the modern incarnation of the Big Three — Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player.

Day, who lives nearby and is a member at Muirfield Village, carded a six-under-par 66 and is two strokes off the lead, but neither McIlroy nor Spieth was ahead of him. They were nowhere to be found on the first page of the leader board, a reminder that talent on the tour is much more than three-deep.

The first-round pacesetter was Dustin Johnson, who shot an eight-under 64 at Muirfield Village. Johnson looked like a worldbeater last June when he hit two of the prettiest shots ever seen under pressure on the 72nd hole of the United States Open ^[1] to give himself one putt for the victory and two to tie Spieth. He missed both: a 12-footer for eagle and a 4-footer for birdie. If not for his first miss on a green that had a five o'clock shadow, Johnson, 31, would currently have as many major titles as Spieth, the world No. 2, and Day, the world No. 1, and would be th ree behind the third-ranked McIlroy.

"I think that Dustin Johnson is arguably the most talented player on the P.G.A. Tour," said Spieth, who opened with a 70. He described Johnson, who has at least one tour victory in each of the past eight seasons and nine over all, as a freakish athlete and golfer.

"He has great hands, great club face control," Spieth said. "I mean, he hits some shots where you won't see anyone else trying to."

Spieth said "it's a matter of time" before Johnson wins a major and suggested that the one stroke that separated them at the United States Open had little to do with skill. "That specific putt," he said, referring to Johnson's eagle attempt, "was almost luck-based with the speed that it had to roll at and the kind of break that it took. But I still expected it to go in."

Johnson, who averaged 309 yards off the tee on Thursday, had 11 one-putts. Though famous for his driving, Johnson's success hinges on his precision on the greens. "Still got to make the putts," he said. "It doesn't matter how good you hit it."

Johnson added: "Every part of my game I feel like is getting better. Just have to be more consistent with putting."

Asked if his struggles on the green are more technical or mental, Johnson said: "That's a good question. I don't know. If I did, I think I'd probably putt a little better."

In lieu of answers, Johnson has settled on a solution. "Hit it closer," he said, referring to his approach shots.

The prince of putting is Spieth, who played with two long hitters, McIlroy and the one-time tour winner Justin Thomas, in a grouping that fell a few bulbs short of a marquee. McIlroy carded a 71, six strokes better than Thomas, who was five-over after three holes. Starting on Muirfield Village's back nine, Spieth one-putted the first seven greens. Four of the putts he sank in that span were over 11 feet. Spieth's ability to use his putter like an eraser to eradicate his mistakes can be demoralizing to his playing competitors.

"It's impressive," said McIlroy, who outplayed him tee to green, only to make the turn two strokes behind him.

McIlroy's length off the tee can be intimidating to opponents, who mess with their rhythm trying to eke out a few more yards on their drives. But Spieth's accuracy with his putter is no less fearsome.

"A shot is a shot, whether it's a putt or a drive," McIlroy said. "They're all important. We get it done different ways, but we get it done."

Nicklaus, this week's tournament host, said more players are finding a way to get it done than in his era. "I think the tour is probably as healthy as it's ever been," he said, adding: "I think we have more good players today than we've ever had in the game of golf. And I think that's saying a lot because we had a lot of good players when I played."

One of the golfers who has flirted with greatness is Patrick Reed, a four-time tour winner with eight top-10 finishes in 16 starts this season. Reed, who opened with a 68, craves more than consistency. Nearly 18 months have passed since his last victory, at the 2015 Tournament of Champions. With so much talent on the tour, the margins of error have grown as small as the periods in tournament checks. Reed, 25, tried to fine-tune his game to keep pace with his peers and ended up becoming a mechanical mess.

"I was trying to be too perfect in my golf swing and trying to be too perfect at every aspect of the game," Reed said. "With that, I was getting away from going out and shooting a score."

Ninety-seven players made more than $1 million in prize money in 2014-15. Led by Day, Spieth and McIlroy, the top players appear in no danger of becoming complacent. Rickie Fowler, the world No. 5, made a beeline for the range to work out the kinks in his swing after signing for his round of 75.

One of Spieth's favorite athletes is Curry, the N.B.A.'s regular-season M.V.P. "I most appreciate that not only did he not settle last year, he did everything he could to improve as a player, to better himself and his team," Spieth said, adding, "I can learn from that, certainly, that he seems to be even having more fun by working even harder and climbing more mountains, reaching the top of the next peak and then seeing another one and challenging himself to get there."