ATLANTA — Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler are playing so much golf together in 2024 that they joke they don't really talk to each other much anymore.
Still, Schauffele has plenty to say after Thursday's round. He had a front row seat to Scheffler's stunning 6-under 65, the lowest score of the day at the Tour Championship and giving the world No. 1 Scheffler a record-breaking lead.
“It looked like Scotty was almost in the fairway,” Schauffele said cheekily.
“It looked like he was working on his wedges while he was out there. If you're in the fairways, you can attack this golf course.”
In fact, Scheffler had a good chance, having missed the fairway just four times on Thursday. After bogeying the first hole, missing the fairway wide right, Scheffler was 7 under par at East Lake. Scheffler finished with 7 birdies and 10 pars and now holds a commanding seven-stroke lead over Schauffele and Collin Morikawa.
Meanwhile, Schauffele was tied with Schauffele right off the bat, and he birdied the first hole to jump to 9 under and tie for the lead. Schauffele began the Tour Championship at 10 under under thanks to starting stroke rule, while Schauffele started at 8 under.
But unlike Scheffler, Schauffele's form dropped off the rest of the way, scoring just two birdies on the par-5 sixth and par-5 14th holes before dropping two strokes on the par-3 11th and par-4 16th holes to make up for the deficit.
“I hit it well at the start,” Schauffele said of his 1-under 70.
“Well, unfortunately it may have reverted a little bit. Now I'm going to go hit some balls while watching the sun go down, but I'll figure it out.”
Schauffele only found seven fairways but hit the green 13 times.
“I was hitting into the rough a lot and the greens were new, so I thought my score was pretty decent considering how bad I was hitting it,” Schauffele added.
“But overall, it was an okay day. Nothing to be proud of, nothing to dislike.”
He has three days to overcome the seven-stroke deficit, which won't be easy, but Schauffele has a strong record at East Lake, so anything could happen.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
