Two double-bogeys on his back nine, including one at the last, defaced Shane Lowry’s card as he recorded a one over par 73 to fall back to one under.
He made a fairly serene start to his second round, with an opening birdie being followed by another at the par-five seventh as he reached the turn in four under for the tournament.
This gave way to a lurid back nine, which started horrendously, with a double-bogey being sandwiched between two bogeys as he fell back to even par after 12 holes.
The 11th saw his first double, Lowry finding the stream on the left side of the hole not once but twice. He then took bogey on 12 after driving long into the bunker at the par three and his round appeared to be derailing.
He rallied well from there, stitching an approach to 3ft for a birdie at 13, with back-to-back birdies at the par-five 15th and the short 16th.
However, much of this was undone with another double on 18, Lowry missing the green and then three-putting from close range.
McIlroy plays a second shot on the 13th hole
Lowry’s countryman Rory McIlroy had similar issues with the inward nine, double-bogeying the 13th and dropping shots on the 16th and 17th for a round of two-over-par 72, good enough to lie one-over-par overall and tied for 20th.
JT Poston made light of tricky, windy conditions to take a one-shot lead at the Memorial Tournament as Scottie Scheffler struggled along with the two Irishmen.
Poston’s seven-under round of 65 was four shots better than any other player in the field at Muirfield Village in Ohio.
First-round joint leader Tommy Fleetwood went backwards with a 73 to drop to fourth, five off the lead.
“It was pretty brutal, actually. I still think I got a good score out of that today. I made a bogey on one and six, where I didn’t really feel like I had done anything wrong whatsoever,” he said.
Scheffler’s bid to win for a third successive year remains alive thanks to three birdies in his last six holes having recorded three successive bogeys from the eighth and escaped with a par after a shank out of a bunker at the fifth.
“Overall it was a tough day, I felt I could have shot 90. I may be a lot of things but I’m not a quitter,” he said.
“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 you to strike the ball really well.”