WASHINGTON (AFP) — Nick Taylor conjured four birdies without a bogey in a four-under-par 68 on Friday to pull into a tie for the lead with Ben Griffin in the US PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.

Taylor, who claimed his fifth PGA title at the Sony Open this year, navigated rain-soaked Muirfield Village with little real trouble on the way to a 36-hole total of seven-under par 137.

“The iron game was very, very sharp,” Taylor said. “Putting, made bunch of nice five-, six-footers on that back nine for par.”

Overnight leader Griffin, coming off his second win of the season at Colonial last week, had one bogey and one birdie in an even-par 71 to maintain a share of the lead.

The leading duo were two strokes in front of American Akshay Bhatia, who carded a 69, with world number one Scottie Scheffler three adrift after his second straight 70 for 140.

“I think everyone would probably say it was kind of a grind,” Griffin said. “Fortunately, having a later tee time, I didn’t have to battle the elements quite as much as some of the early groups.”

“But a day like today when it’s really wet, I think hitting it in the rough is just even more penal. The ball just kind of goes straight to the bottom with the moisture, and then when there’s moisture, it’s harder to get to the ball down in the rough. So I had some very tricky lies.”

“I got some good breaks on a couple holes where I was in the rough and was able to get it up to the green. So all in all, coming off of yesterday where I made just about everything I looked at, you can’t do that every day when you’re playing golf.”