Cam Smith called his gutsy second round “a tale of two nines” after grinding out a 69 to take the 36-hole lead at eight-under-par at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial Tournament.

The world No.3 Smith bagged birdies at No.5 and No.7 at the famed Muirfield Village GC in Ohio and, along with a bogey, he made the turn at one under the card. On the back side, things were looking good when the Queenslander laid up on the par-5 11th and made a crafty birdie.

But Smith airmailed the green with his tee shot on the par-3 12th and was in serious trouble in thick, greenside rough. Smith used his world-class short game to splash it out of and into the hole for an unlikely birdie:

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1532815785411891207?s=20&t=iyZQRIiv_HOsR5mtSRaYHg

Smith faced more trouble at the 13th. He flared his drive 334 yards into right rough and had a 144 yards to hole. He hit his second shot just 58 yards and it left it in the rough, but hit his third to the fringe and then holed a 15-foot putt to save par:

https://twitter.com/PGATOUR/status/1532822239070019584?s=20&t=iyZQRIiv_HOsR5mtSRaYHg

Smith also scrambled for impressive pars at the 14th, 16th and 18th holes.

“I think today was two different stories; I flushed it on the front nine and then on the back nine I made a few mistakes off tee and into greens but I stuck in there with some really solid up and downs,” Smith told Golf Channel after the round.

Smith, who has won two PGA Tour events already this year including the Players Championship, feels prepared for tough conditions at the difficult Muirfield Village GC over the weekend rounds.

“I prepped for this week very and I’m very comfortable where my game is,” Smith said. “This place for me is always a hard because given my driver doesn’t go that straight but I worked really hard on that last week. I just hit a few more balls with the driver on the range than I normally do. I tend to get lazy by the time I get to the driver but I stuck around for an extra 20 minutes each day last week.”

Meanwhile, Cam Davis, Lucas Herbert and Adam Scott (two over) were set to make the cut. Marc Leishman and Matt Jones (five over), Min Woo Lee (six over), Curtis Luck (seven over) and Jed Morgan (13 over) were all set to miss the weekend.