Xander Schauffele continues to impress at Valhalla Golf Membership as he leads after Day 2 of the 2024 PGA Championship. He fired off a 3-under 68 to take a seat at 12-under on the event and maintain a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa.
Schauffele needed to combat onerous on Friday. He went out in 32 strokes, making three birdies within the course of. He went birdie-bogey on 10 and 11 on the again 9, then settled for par the remainder of the way in which house.
The 7-time PGA Tour winner confirmed plenty of grit on Friday to keep up the highest spot on the PGA Championship leaderboard.
“Whenever you haven’t gained a golf event in just a few years, you must be fairly resilient,” Schauffele mentioned.
“I’m simply affected person and attempting to play one of the best golf I can and keep out of my means. I do know I’m enjoying actually good golf proper now, and all I can do is give attention to my course of and my discuss with Austin, and that’s about it.”
This week marks the second event in a row with him in competition heading into the weekend. Schauffele fell brief final week as Rory McIlroy’s unbelievable Sunday spherical capsided the 30-year-old’s momentum.
Regardless of not having a victory because the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, he didn’t let one other runner-up end bum him out. Schauffele acquired proper again to work for Valhalla, and it’s paying off thus far.
“I used to be bummed out I didn’t win, however I knew I used to be enjoying nicely,” he mentioned. “I had a few hiccups there on Sunday on the unsuitable time. Rory performed unbelievably nicely. I understand how I’m hitting it, and my largest concern was having sufficient relaxation to be taught this golf course in time earlier than we teed off on Thursday.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25453685/2153457844.jpg)
Photograph by Andrew Redington/Getty Photographs
It’s his first time enjoying Valhalla. In Spherical 1, he was No. 2 in strokes gained placing, selecting up 4.167 pictures. Nevertheless, Schauffele did a 180-degree shift on Friday as he was No. 115 in strokes gained, dropping 1.203 strokes to the sphere on the placing greens.
He is aware of that in a leaderboard like this, with so many gamers inside placing distance, the weekend will likely be about staying in his lane. If Shauffele needs to win his first main championship, he should put his blinders on and get ruthless on the course.
“I feel as quickly as 62 was posted, there’s simply blood within the water,” he mentioned. “If the roles have been reversed, it’s form of like everybody form of feels they will shoot low now. That’s simply the way it goes out right here. So, I feel it helps to maintain the pinnacle down, no less than for now. It’s solely two rounds.”
Schauffele and Morikawa will tee off collectively on Saturday after the remainder of the sphere completes the second spherical. Play stopped at 8:41 p.m. ET attributable to darkness, with a handful of teams left to complete their 36 holes.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Enjoying By. For extra golf protection, you should definitely observe us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You too can observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
