Theegala rises to seventh, Akshay slips to tied-18th at Memorial

Dublin (Ohio), Jun 9 (PTI) Sahith Theegala made a smart upward move in the third round of the Memorial even as world No.1 Scottie Scheffler continued his imperious march in world golf.

Indian-American Theegala's 3-under 69 saw him in tied-seventh place after being T-20 at the end of the second round. Meanwhile, Akshay Bhatia (75) slipped from T-7 to T-18.

Scheffler was at 10-under 206 and four ahead of Colling Morikawa (68), Adam Hadwin (72) and Sepp Straka (68).

It was a strange day for Scheffler, who had a triple bogey when he went out of bounds in his 1-under 71. He also had six birdies.

Yet, at the end of the day, he had increased his lead to four shots over Morikawa, who played bogey-free for a 68. With Morikawa and Hadwin in a tie for second was Sepp Straka (68), who like Morikawa was bogey free. Hadwin shot 72 with one eagle, a double bogey, one birdie and one bogey in an even-par round.

Rory McIlroy (73) was lying T-11 and eight shots behind Scheffler, while Xander Schauffele (71) was in the bunch tied at fifth place.

Scheffler was in command despite all the mistakes on a tough Muirfield Village Golf Club course. He is now one round away from his fifth PGA Tour victory of the year.

Morikawa will be in the final group with Scheffler, just as he was at the Masters. Defending champion Viktor Hovland seemed to be in the fray till he went into the water on the par-5 11th for a bogey.

He had further bogeys on the 12th, 13th and 14th. He birdied the 15th, but again put his tee shot into the water on the par-3 16th for a triple bogey. In the stretch between 11th and 16th he had four bogeys, a triple bogey and one birdie for a back nine 42 and a round of 77. He dropped to T-14 and nine shots out of the lead. PTI Cor AM AM AM