DUBLIN, Ohio – Back at a place where he has won five times before, Tiger Woods started the Memorial Tournament with a 2-under 70 that could have been better. It also could have been a whole lot worse. Some thoughts from strolling the Muirfield Village fairways alongside Woods in the opening round:

• Let’s start with the basics. Birdies on three of his final five holes got Woods into red figures, and at 2 under he was inside the top 20 and five shots behind Ryan Moore at the end of the morning wave.

• Woods had it going off the tee, finding 11 of 14 fairways. But the irons were a clear culprit as he found only 10 greens in regulation and often turned birdie opportunities into scrambling pars. “Hit a couple loose irons early,” Woods said. “But hung in there and finally got it turned around at the end.”

• Conditions were soft after an overnight rain, and there were plenty of red figures on the leaderboard. But Woods shared that the prime scoring conditions also made it difficult to control the spin with his irons, adding an extra variable to the equation. “Interesting thing is you try to take spin off of it with some of the short irons. They’re ripping back quite a bit with these slopes,” he said. “I’ve got to work on that on the range.”

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• Woods teetered around even par for much of the round, but he needed a few clutch saves to avoid an over-par total. Errant tee shots at Nos. 1 and 10 both led to pars where he had to get up and down from outside 50 yards.

• Woods played alongside Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau, and the group was put on the clock after nine holes. “That made things a little more complicated,” Woods said.

• Woods’ best shot of the day came at No. 8, where he stuffed it inside 5 feet for a second consecutive birdie. His two bogeys came at Nos. 6 and 13, both the result of errant approach shots.

• According to Woods, this was a round that could have been “5 or 6 under.” Instead he’ll have to settle for a 2-under total as he looks to play the weekend for the first time since the Masters. “I’m definitely feeling a lot better, and I’m hitting the ball a little better,” Woods said. “I just need to not make a couple loose mistakes like I did today.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – After struggling to a 2-over 74 to open his title defense at the Memorial, Bryson DeChambeau’s post-round comments focused on a single subject: pace.

DeChambeau played in a marquee grouping alongside Tiger Woods and Justin Rose, and the trio was put on the clock after No. 18, their ninth hole of the day. DeChambeau was subsequently informed of a bad time after taking too long to hit his second shot into the par-5 fifth hole, meaning that another bad time would have resulted in a one-shot penalty.

DeChambeau didn’t have another bad time the rest of the way, but he made a double bogey on No. 6 in the immediate wake of his warning from PGA Tour official Brad Fabel.

“He came up to me and told me I had a bad time. And I was like, do you realize I was deciding between laying up and going for it?” DeChambeau said. “And we’ve had struggles the past three holes in a row, hazards and making bogeys and all that. Was that not factored in? ‘Well, it’s just 40 seconds, it is what it is.’ Well, I don’t agree with that.”

When playing approach shots, Tour regulations afford the first player in the group 50 seconds to play his shot while each subsequent player must hit in 40 seconds or less. DeChambeau’s group spent much of their second nine at least a hole behind the grouping of Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas ahead of them.

DeChambeau’s mathematical approach has come under fire before, with Brooks Koepka calling slow play on Tour “kind of embarrassing” following DeChambeau’s detailed pre-shot routine en route to a victory in Dubai. DeChambeau is aware of his reputation, one that he believes is unjustified.

“It’s a bit unfair when you’ve got someone that’s behind you, let’s say, and they’re slower, but they’re quicker through their process. I get up there in the middle of the fairway and I have to wait for them to go, and then I have only my 40 seconds, which is what I’m trying to do everything under,” he said. “People call me slow. I call myself quick with the stuff I do. … A lot of guys out here, they just see it and they hit it. And for me I don’t want to do that because I feel like there’s other variables I get hurt on.”

Playing alongside DeChambeau, Woods shared that officials placing the trio on the clock at the turn “made things a little more complicated” over the inward half.

“It’s one of those things where it’s a group effort to try to get back in position,” Woods said. “The group ahead of us, JT doesn’t take a lot of time, Rory plays quick, and Jordan was 7 under through 13 holes. So they’re obviously playing fast, and we were obviously not.”

DeChambeau shared that he has attempted to earn a spot on the Player Advisory Council for the last three years, in part to influence Tour policy when it comes to slow play, but “nobody’s ever voted me on.” He was quick to provide his proposed solution, one that would factor the time it takes for a player to walk to his ball in between shots rather than specifically focus on the time he takes once it’s his turn to play.

“The time to hurry is in between shots. It’s not over the shot,” he said. “It’s timing how people walk. You have to add that to the equation. If you’ve got somebody walking slow and they get up to the shot and take their 20 seconds, what’s the aggregate time for them to hit that shot in between shots? That’s what really matters. It’s not the shot at hand.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – Just about the time that Tiger Woods finished his pro-am round Wednesday at the Memorial Tournament, his alma mater was busy polishing off its first national title in more than a decade.

Stanford secured a 3-2 victory over Texas in the championship match in Fayetteville, Ark., prompting many Cardinal alums to voice their support for the squad that’s bringing the first team NCAA championship back to Palo Alto since 2007.

Included among them was Woods, who won an individual title at Stanford in 1996. He tweeted a short video in the hours after the team’s victory, then expanded on his reaction following an opening-round 70 at Muirfield Village.

“That was awesome,” Woods said. “Just to see not only them come back and win the national championship, but I’m so happy for (coach) Conrad (Ray). Conrad and I were teammates a long time ago, but it’s awesome to see him win another national championship.”

Ray was also coaching the Cardinal back in 2007, when they won by 12 shots over Georgia in Williamsburg, Va. The format for the men’s national championship switched to match play beginning in 2009.

Jordan Spieth won a national title as part of the 2012 squad at Texas, and he shared his support for John Fields’ runner-up squad following an opening-round 66 at the Memorial.

“They used up a lot of energy there in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches,” Spieth said. “What an awesome run by them. And they’re really young and only going to get better.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – For a player whose career has been defined by consistency, 2019 has been anything but consistent for Ryan Moore.

After starting his season last fall with a playoff loss at the Safeway Open, he’s managed just one top-10 finish since, which made his bogey-free opening round on Thursday at the Memorial worth enjoying.

“I've had two kind of really good finishes, and then a bunch of very moderate golf up around that,” Moore said. “I'd like to make it a little bit more consistent. I'm a guy that can be up there, like top 5s and top 10s, and either I've had it or haven't had it this year, which is a little unusual for me.”

There was nothing missing from his game on Day 1 at Muirfield Village. Moore birdied five of his first seven holes and played his closing nine in increasingly difficult conditions in 2 under par for the early lead.

His 7-under 65 was his best opening round of the season and was an encouraging start on a course that Moore admits can be a challenge for him being a mid-length player.

“For me, I hit it pretty short and it's not rolling. It's playing 5-, 6-irons into holes I'm used to hitting 7-, 8-(irons) into,” Moore said. “The greens are receptive. You're hitting that 6-iron, it's not one hopping 3 or 4 yards, it's hitting and stopping within 10 feet, which is nice for me.”

DUBLIN, Ohio – Tiger Woods got off to a slower start than he would have liked Thursday at the Memorial.

That had more do with a stopwatch than a scorecard.

Ryan Moore opened with five birdies in seven holes and never missed a fairway after the first one, posting a 7-under 65 for his best start in his 14th appearance at Muirfield Village. He was one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, who chipped in for birdie, for par and holed a 35-foot eagle putt.

Woods made a pair of late birdies to salvage a 70 in his first round since missing the cut at the PGA Championship. He played his second nine in a foursome along with Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and a rules official in a cart timing them because they were so far out of position.

''We were on the clock most of the back nine,'' Woods said. ''That made things a little more complicated.''

Getting caught up wasn't easy with various tee shots in water hazards, though it was obvious how far behind they were. Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas were the group ahead of them, and McIlroy hit his tee shot on the par-4 second into a backyard. With no official nearby, he had to walk 300 yards back to the tee to hit again. That took time. Still, walking off the fourth green, the group of Woods, DeChambeau and Rose still had not reached the third tee.

DeChambeau, who considers such variables as air density and elevation change in his pre-shot routine, went over his allotted time on No. 5 and was given a warning for a bad time. He made birdie, took double bogey from a fairway bunker on the next hole and began his title defense with a 74.

He was frustrated by being on the clock, and by not getting through to the PGA Tour on how to measure pace of play.

''The time to hurry is in between shots. It's not the shot,'' DeChambeau said. ''It's timing how people walk. You have to add that to the equation. If you've got someone walking slow, they get up to the shot, take their 20 seconds. What's the aggregate time for them to hit that shot in between shots? That's really what matters. That's what I believe. The total time it took me - if you were to take my process and walking time - is the exact time as everyone else.''

Golf still is measured by score, and Moore had the lowest one among the early starters on a rain-softened Muirfield Village. Only two of his seven birdies were longer than 10 feet, and the only time he came close to a bogey was on his opening hole, where he saved par with a 6-foot putt.

Spieth looked as though he couldn't miss for the longest time. On his second hole, the par-5 11th, his wedge came up so short on a soft green that it spun off the front. He chipped in from 50 feet for birdie. Another chip from thick rough caught the slope on the back of the par-5 15th green and rolled down to 3 feet for a birdie.

He went out in 32, made an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 3 and then had consecutive holes that illustrated how his round was going.

On the par-3 fourth, his tee shot was buried in the slope of a mound above the bunker. With his feet well below the ball, he hooked it out onto and across the green into more rough, and then chipped in for par. On the par-5 fifth, his hybrid caught the right side of the green and he rolled in the long eagle putt.

Spieth took only 22 putts for the round.

And then his luck ran out with a tee shot that plugged into the sand left of the green on the par-3 eighth, leaving him two options: go at the pin and run off the green into rough, or aim away from the flag and leave a 60-foot putt for par. He chose the latter and came inches within making it.

''Sooner or later, it was going bite me,'' Spieth said with a smile.

Even so, he had no complaints.

''Six under around Muirfield I'd take any day of the week, no matter what form you're coming into it with,'' he said. ''I felt like I hit more fairways today, gave me some more opportunities, and the putter stayed hot.''

Thomas, in his first tournament since the Masters because of a bone bruise in his right wrist, showed plenty of rust in his round of 71. McIlroy had a 75 with two double bogeys, both from tee shots either lost (No. 15) or out-of-bounds (No. 2).

Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman and Martin Kaymer were at 67.

Woods made birdies on all but one of the par 5s. His regret was a few loose iron shots that led to bogey, especially on the 13th when he hit 9-iron from the fairway into a bunker that led to a careless bogey. But he finished strong - eventually - and while 10 players from his side of the draw broke 70, he wasn't too far behind.

At least on the leaderboard.

''That was frustrating, because the last eight holes we were on the clock,'' Woods said. ''The group ahead of us ... JT doesn't take a lot of time, Rory plays quick and Jordan was 7 under. So they were obviously playing fast. And we were obviously not.''