World No 1 Scottie Scheffler and PGA Championship winner Xander Schauffele made strong starts to sit among the leaders after the first round of the lucrative Memorial Tournament on Thursday.

Canada’s Adam Hadwin though will head the field going into Friday’s second round at Muirfield Village Golf Club after the world No 59 produced an impressive six-under-par opening round featuring eight birdies.

Scheffler finished one shot back on five under, after recording six birdies and one bogey – which came on the par-five fifth – while Schauffele is a further shot back in a four-way tie for third.

Making his first tournament appearance since becoming a major champion at Valhalla last month, Schauffele went bogey-free through his 18 holes.

Ludvig Aberg, Corey Conners and Collin Morikawa also finished their opening rounds on four under.

Defending Memorial champion Viktor Hovland is one of five players tied at three-under 69, and Rory McIlroy is part of a group at two-under.

“Going out this morning, a little softer greens, a little softer fairways, I was able to put up a good score,” said Scheffler.

“It felt like I hit a lot of quality shots today, it felt like my ball striking was really good, and I was able to hole a few putts as well, so overall, pretty pleased with the round today.”

Hadwin leads but golf’s big names lurking just behind

The Jack Nicklaus-hosted tournament in Ohio is the penultimate ‘Signature Event’ of the PGA Tour season, the series of eight tournaments that feature reduced fields with increased prize money and FedExCup points.

Sunday’s winner will take home $4m (£3.1m) from the overall $20m (£15.6m) tournament purse.

With only 73 players in action for what is the final event on tour before next week’s US Open – which is live on Sky Sports Golf on June 13-16 – the sharp end of the round-one leaderboard featured six of the world’s top 10 players.

Asked about the presence of so many big names in early contention for the win, Schauffele said: “I think that’s exactly what we were trying to do as a tour.

“It’s the product we want to put out. When you look up at that board you want to see everyone’s name as high up there as possible hashing it out on Sunday. That’s what people want to see and that’s what we want to give ’em.”

Hadwin, by contrast, is currently ranked just inside the world’s top 60, although the 36-year-old is a previous PGA Tour winner himself, at the Valspar Championship in 2017.

The Canadian started his round with a downhill, 29-foot birdie putt at the first hole and added a 35 1/2-footer at the par-five fifth. Those were two of his four birdies on the front nine before a bogey at the eighth.

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His four birdies on the back nine were much shorter, none longer than five feet, and he stood at seven-under before bogeying his last.

“It’s only Thursday, a lot of golf left,” Hadwin said.

“I took advantage of maybe a little bit softer Muirfield Village with the rain overnight and we’ve got three more rounds to go, and I’ve been torn apart by this place before, so I know how quickly it can sneak up on you. So just keep doing what I did really well today.”

Watch the Memorial Tournament throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Early coverage of Friday’s second round starts at 12.15pm via the red button on Sky Sports Golf, before moving to Sky Sports Golf from 5pm ahead of full coverage at 7pm.

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