2020 Memorial Tournament leaderboard, takeaways: Tiger Woods in the hunt as Tony Finau leads after Round 1

Woods played pretty well in his first tournament action in over five months

Thursday's first round of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village was everything we thought it would be. Nasty conditions exacerbated by wind, check. An elite leaderboard rife with ball-striking fiends, check. The best player of all time squarely in the mix after five months off, check.

Let's jump into a Round 1 recap by looking at our leaderboard, the big fella leading and what Tiger Woods did at a tournament where he's won five times in his career. 

1. Tony Finau (-6) -- Big Tony showing off a week after he hit 210 miles per hour on Trackman. That video went viral, of course, but it was fun to see him open it up a little bit on the course on Thursday, too. He took a laugh-out-loud-worthy line on No. 18, hit it 370 and got up and down for birdie. It's emblematic of what he's capable of when the throttle is all the way down and could be a harbinger for the rest of the week.

2. Ryan Palmer (-5), T3. Brendan Steele, Gary Woodland (-4) -- After a great week last week at the Workday Charity Open, Woodland continued his roll on Thursday at Muirfield Village. It's fitting that somebody of his ball-striking caliber would lead because Muirfield Village demanded every shot in the book in Round 1. Woodland's all-around game was stout as he gained strokes in every single category. He has plenty of staying power at the top of the board and should be in the mix over the next 54 holes.

T5. Charles Howell III, Jon Rahm, Lucas Glover (-3) -- Ball-strikers only, please! My sleeper coming in (Glover at 125-1) was the only player in the top 15 who lost more than half a stroke with his putter. Glover was lights out from tee to green, and Thursday's howling wind and firm course rewarded the best ball-strikers. Glover is one of the few golfers who has four top 25s since the PGA Tour's restart, and he should notch another one this weekend. At least. Also, if Howell III had given Dustin Johnson five a side, he still would have beaten him.

T9. Luke List, Mark Hubbard, Ryan Moore, Rory McIlroy, Harris English (-2) -- How about McIlroy sliding into the top 10 while losing strokes to the field off the tee? That feels problematic for everybody else involved because there's no chance that continues over the next three days. He was tremendous with his putter on Thursday, saving long pars multiple times to string together a round of 70 that definitely could have been over par. It always feels like stealing when McIlroy sneaks in a few long ones for par, and he's set himself up nicely for Friday.

T9. Max Homa, Patrick Cantlay, Patrick Rodgers, Jimmy Walker Jordan Spieth (-2) -- I'm here for Spieth! After a wild four-hole open in which Spieth made a par, a birdie, an eagle and a double (a bogey from the full house!), he settled in and played quality golf. The most encouraging part? He didn't putt that well. Instead, he put a round together with every other part of his game. I trust him to keep it up over the next three days about as much as I trust myself to not tweet about his adventures, but it was fun to see for at least one day.

T19. Ben An, Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Reed, Vijay Singh, Paul Casey, Chez Reavie, Tiger Woods (-1) -- Only six golfers had better approach-shot numbers than the Big Cat. His swing looked great, and the rust on his tee-to-green game was mostly non-existent. To highlight this, consider the four shots Woods had from 50-125 yards. Woods averaged an approach of 11 feet from this distance, which was top 10 in the field (min. four attempts). That's pretty good for somebody who hasn't played since February.

He opened and closed with birdies and is inside the top 20 because of his iron play. There are certainly things to work on, too. His short-game play was subpar (this is another place rust can show up), and if he wants to seriously contend with the big dogs this week, he'll have to hit more than eight fairways in the next three rounds.

Still, it was more proof that a rested Woods is a better version than the Woods who chases reps throughout the year. This course will play into his hands, too. Tiger loves grinding out 71s and 70s maybe more than anyone in golf history, and Muirfield Village will demand it all four days this week. A 1-under 71 might not sound all that great, but if he shoots two more of them over the next two days, he'll probably have a late tee time on Sunday as he tries for Memorial win No. 6.

Other takeaways from Round 1

• Phil Mickelson stopping his putter mid-takeback has me feeling nauseous. What is this?? He actually putted it fine, but I'm not sure I'm prepared for Lefty's putter move to look like Hideki Matsuyama's old backswing.

• How difficult was Muirfield Village on Thursday? The top 10 players in the world shot a combined 9 over, including Dustin Johnson who himself was 8 over. And Jack Nicklaus said it was only getting close to how fast and firm he wants it to play. This is -- for all intents and purposes -- a major championship.

• This shot from Justin Rose was absolutely ludicrous!

CBS Sports was you the entire way updating this story with the latest scores, updates and highlights from the Memorial below. Check out the live scores at the top of this story or a more detailed leaderboard.

[Jul 16, 2020 at 5:33 pm ET · Kyle Porter]

Rory gets it to -2 after a miracle shot on No. 15. Tiger hit it to 2 inches and made birdie to get to -1. Good back nine for him so far.

[Jul 16, 2020 at 3:46 pm ET · Kyle Porter]

Somehow -- I'm not sure how -- Rory, Tiger and Brooks (all playing together) all go out in 36. If any of them can come home in 35 or 34, they'll be in the mix.