DUBLIN, Ohio — Hideki Matsuyama was bracing for a rough day at the Memorial and wound up with a share of the lead Thursday.

Tiger Woods still doesn’t know what to expect.

Matsuyama made a bold start in his bid to join Woods as the only repeat winners at Muirfield Village by running off four straight birdies on the back nine and one strong par save on his way to an 8-under 64 that tied the Japanese star with Bo Van Pelt.

“To be honest with you, up until yesterday I was not hitting the ball very well, I was not chipping very well, I was not putting very well,” Matsuyama said through a translator. “And I don’t know what happened overnight. We just caught magic.”

It was a dream start for Van Pelt for other reasons. He grew up across the state line in Indiana and used to play hooky from school to attend the Memorial from the time he was 10 until he got out of high school. Muirfield Village is where he first dreamed about playing the PGA Tour. In calm conditions under an overcast sky, Van Pelt made a career-best 10 birdies for his best score in 41 rounds at the course Jack Nicklaus built.

“Other than the Masters, this tournament means more to me than any one I’ve ever played,” Van Pelt said. “So it’s always good to play well around a place that means a lot to you.”

Woods, a five-time winner of the event, started with a bogey for the eighth time in his last nine starts and went out in 40. But he battled to save pars and convert birdies, and salvaged a 73 that left him nine shots back.

LPGA: Rookie Cheyenne Woods – Tiger’s niece – tied a course record with a 9-under 63 to take a one-shot lead after one round at the Manulife LPGA Classic in Cambridge, Ontario. She shares the mark at Whistle Bear Golf Club with Matt Bettencourt and Jon Mills, who both shot 63 at the Canadian PGA Championship in 2005.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Swedish amateur Marcus Kinhult was in a three-way tie for the lead after one round of the Nordea Masters in Malmo, Sweden, on 5-under-par 67.


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