Alex Smalley showed up Friday at Muirfield Village for the second round of The Memorial. And he passed Rickie Fowler on the scoreboard.
But not anybody else. The Jamestown resident and former Duke star shot 76 to miss the cut, finishing 71st in the 72-player field.
It would have been easy for Smalley to leave Thursday after shooting 83 in the opening round of Jack Nicklaus’ annual PGA Tour event outside Columbus, Ohio. Players much closer to making the projected cut often withdraw after poor opening rounds.
Smalley was in last place Thursday, 16 shots off the lead and 11 behind the projected cut line.
Though Memorial is one of the Tour’s nine “Signature Events,” it has a 36-hole cut to the top 50 players and ties. Players who miss the 36-hole cut do not receive a check.
Perhaps out of respect for Nicklaus, none of the players hopelessly out of contention after poor opening rounds withdrew before the second round, including Jhonathan Vegas, who opened with 80 or Fowler, who shot 79 before his 82 Friday.
At the top of the scoreboard, Hickory native J.T. Poston was the second-round leader at 9-under 135.
The missed cut was only the second for Smalley in 16 starts this year. Triangle native Akshay Bhatia, who shot 80 Friday, also missed the cut.
Give some credit to Matt McCarty, who shot 69 Friday after opening with 81. But McCarty missed the cut by a single stroke.
Muirfield Village played very difficult, producing six rounds of 80 or higher among the elite members of the field.
