the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide Insurance June 3 2011 6:46 pm Aces wild for Stricker Halleran/Getty Images Steve Stricker shot a 5-under 67 Friday at Muirfield Village. By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.COM DUBLIN, Ohio ?The walking scorer has the ball. But he may not know the autographed Titleist that Steve Stricker handed him after Friday's round was "the" ball. That would be the one that found the hole from 186 yards after Steve Stricker launched that pinpoint 6-iron at No. 8 Friday afternoon. The same one that settled 15 feet from the pin at the ninth hole for a closing birdie. "I didn't tell him," Stricker said with a sheepish grin. "I don't know. It's just a ball." The ace fueled a round of 67 and staked Stricker to a three-stroke lead at 9 under. It was the second of Stricker's PGA TOUR career and was greeted by the usual exhortations as he walked toward the green. "You're buying, What are we drinking, all that kind of stuff," Stricker chuckled. His first ace had come on the raucous and rocking 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale during the 1997 Phoenix Open. That had to be pretty memorable, right? "It was, but that day I had teed off the back nine first, so there wasn't a lot of people there," Stricker deadpanned. "Yeah, there wasn't too many people. That was the same year that Tiger made his ace. You didn't see mine that year? No?" Of cours"e, Stricker did walk away with the car ?an Oldsmobile Aurora. Woods?ace that whipped the crowd into a frenzy came on Saturday. The car was only up for grabs on Sunday. And what did Stricker do with the car? "I used it for a little while and then traded it in for a minivan," he said with a smile. Stricker's ace on Friday didn't reap the same kind of tangible reward. But if he ends up winning on Sunday the hole-in-one that fueled a front-nine 30 will likely have been pivotal in the victory. "That shot there is always a bonus," Stricker said. "You don't expect to make a 1, but it was a good number for me there today. ?That shot has always provided me with trouble over the years, and it's just a tough par 3. There's not a lot of room there to hit it, and what I had going for me there was a little bit of a left-to-right wind and I draw the ball so I could pretty much hold up against the wind, and it started off right at the hole and went in. "I didn't see how it went in, but it looked like it went in fairly nicely like a putt. It's a shock when you see that go in, obviously, but a good way, a great way to finish the round." Filed under: Steve Stricker