Lingmerth leads Memorial as Tiger Woods scrapes into weekend

Swedish hopeful David Lingmerth leads an all-star field at the Memorial Tournament after shooting a flawless seven-under round of 65 on Friday.

The 27-year-old is yet to win on the PGA Tour but holds a one-shot advantage over 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner at the halfway stage in Ohio after finding seven birdies around the Muirfield Village course.

Adding gloss to a stellar performance was a three-foot birdie putt on the difficult par-four 18th hole that saw him post a 12 under total of 132.

Lingmerth - recently forced to regain his tour card at the Web.com Tour Finals after finishing 134th in last year’s FedExCup standings - said afterwards: “All of a sudden I just started playing the way I know I can.”

Dufner, who made a hole-in-one with a six-iron on the 201-yard 16th having suffered a double-bogey on the par-three 12th, is just clear of the day's biggest mover, Andy Sullivan of England.

Sullivan is tied for third place with Ryan Moore after surging up the leaderboard with an eight-under 64. Twice a winner on the European Tour, he hit 16 of 18 greens, making eight birdies and no bogeys.

Tiger Woods, meanwhile, just about made the cut after following up his opening-day 73 with a 70 that featured five birdies and three bogeys.

Other stars struggling to make an impression included Justin Rose, who improved on his Thursday score of 68 by a single stroke, while joint overnight leader Hideki Matsuyama slipped into a five-way share of fifth place after reaching the clubhouse one under for the day.

Bo Van Pelt had matched the Japanese in carding a first-round 64 but returned to the course to shoot 72, thus tumbling to four strokes off the pace.