Xander Schauffele rallied after opening spherical 70 to submit a bogey-free 7-under 64 on Friday on the Tour Championship. It appears he’s discovering the magic of East Lake once more.
Schauffele sits 5 pictures again of Scottie Scheffler at 16-under general and one again of Collin Morikawa, who shot an 8-under 63 to place him at 17-under complete. In the meantime, Scottie Scheffler didn’t let the climate delay part him and shot a 5-under 66 to get to 21-under general.
“It was good to complete off with two huge putts,” Schauffele stated after his spherical on Friday. “Fairly darkish out, so blissful these two went in. It retains the momentum from what was a reasonably good spherical.”
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Picture by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Photos
The 2-time main winner began his day with two par putts however then obtained right into a rhythm.
Schauffele made 4 birdies in his subsequent seven holes to make the flip at 31 strokes. He added one other birdie on the par-3 eleventh and the par-5 14th.
Climate rolled in and triggered the PGA Tour to delay Spherical 2. The previous few teams waited a little bit over an hour, however they had been in a position to play the previous few holes on Friday night.
Nevertheless, that didn’t have an effect on Schauffele. He made an enormous par save on the seventeenth to remain bogey-free. The 30-year-old made a 12-footer for birdie in the dead of night to complete with an enormous momentum enhance.
Regardless that it was solely the match’s second spherical, Schauffele knew he needed to shoot a low rating to maintain up with Scheffler and Morikawa.
“I performed with Scottie yesterday, so this course proper now, with how agency the greens are, it’s a ball-striking kind deal the place it’s a must to be within the fairways and hit your quantity, and he’s been killing everybody at that every one yr,” he stated. “I do know he’s not going to let up, so there’s just one solution to get him.”
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Picture by Christian Petersen/Getty Photos
Scheffler regarded nearly unstoppable Friday afternoon. He did present his human aspect down the stretch, however after the climate delay, the previous Texas Longhorn birdied two of his closing three holes.
Schauffele can solely management his sport and is aware of he should be at his greatest to beat the world’s No. 1 participant.
“It’s actually as much as him, to be trustworthy. I’ve to play out of my “beep” to smell,” Schauffele stated. “Being two again after which capturing 1-under yesterday and him capturing the low spherical of the day, it’s not the beginning I wanted. A way of urgency right this moment to try to choose some up.”
The shot of the day needed to be that par-putt on 17. Schauffele sank the 11-foot putt with confidence as a result of he knew he wanted it to remain inside putting distance.
“I used to be wanting bogey straight within the eye there on 17,” he defined. “I needed to play a putt that broke about two toes downhill within the darkish climate. It’s not one I need to hit once more, I can let you know that.”
Schauffele will play within the group forward of Scheffler and Morikawa on Saturday. He and Sahith Theegala tee off at 2:44 p.m. ET as he appears to chip away at that five-shot lead.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By way of. For extra golf protection, observe us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You can even observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @golf_girl_sl.
