ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler set a PGA Tour “record” at the Tour Championship on Thursday, but he continued to hold down his status as the best player in the world the next day.
But Scheffler saw his big lead shrink from seven to four after shooting a five-under 66, despite dominating East Lake off the tee.
“I feel like my swing is in good shape and I've been hitting it well the last few days,” Scheffler said.
“There's a lot of quality stuff going on and we're in a good position going into the weekend.”
Leading by four strokes after 36 holes in the final PGA Tour event is as good as it gets, but Scheffler has held big leads before at the Tour Championship and has yet to win the FedEx Cup. Still, the former University of Texas Longhorn isn't feeling any pressure from Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, who are four and five strokes behind him.
“It's the second round of the tournament. It's the second round. It's a long tournament. I'm just going to try my best to hang in there and make some shots,” Scheffler said.
“I did a pretty good job today.”
Did you know Schaeffler locked on with the driver On the par-4 first hole, the most difficult on the course, he hit his tee shot 319 yards down the middle of the fairway and bogeyed the hole he'd made the day before by missing it right over the short grass.
Scheffler then hit a 7-iron into this tricky green complex, but the ball bounced hard and missed the left side of the green. The low trajectory, combined with the firmness of the green, sent Scheffler's ball rolling into one of Andrew Green's new light collection areas, creating a dangerous up-and-down swing from 30 yards out.
The reigning Masters champion hit a chip shot that bore no resemblance to his otherworldly short game: He was left with a 20-foot shot for par and sank it.
“It was a great par,” Scheffler said.
“One of the best up-and-downs I've had in a while. It was a really great start to the day. I was sitting in the fairway hoping to get a birdie. But at the end of the day, on the first hole, you're just trying to get a four. It's a pretty tough hole. Like I said, if you drop the ball in the middle of the green, it can put you in a pretty tough situation.”
Long par putts like the one Scheffler made on the first hole can help fuel early momentum.
Two holes later, he hit a wedge into 10 feet for the first of his six birdies that day. He hit a lot of wedges on Friday thanks to some great play off the tee. If you have a wedge at East Lake, you're likely to hit a lot of birdies.
Despite this, Schaeffler felt he missed some great opportunities.
“A lot of the putts weren't that far off the cup,” Scheffler said.
“But there's a lot of quality stuff going on and we're in a good position going into the weekend.”
Still, a two-hole win streak on the back nine made things somewhat more interesting heading into the final 36 holes of the Tour Championship, with Scheffler briefly losing his way with the big stick.
On the par-4 13th, Scheffler missed the fairway for the second time all day and his tee shot landed in a bunker on the left. He then hit a low, spindly cut shot with ball flight that hardly resembled that of the best player in the world. His Titleist 7 came to rest in a fried-egg lie in a greenside bunker, short-side himself. Yet Scheffler miraculously recovered and put in a 9-footer for par. But he missed.
Meanwhile, playing partner Morikawa chipped in for birdie to cut Scheffler's lead from seven to five with two strokes to go.
Then, on the next hole, Scheffler again missed the fairway left. This time, his ball landed in the Bermuda rough between the gallery and missed the green in two strokes. Instead, his second shot landed in a build-up area on the left side below the green. But unlike the first hole, Scheffler failed to get up and down. He settled for par, and Moriakwa made a 22-foot birdie on the same green to cut the lead to four strokes.
Shortly after, the PGA Tour suspended play due to lightning in the area, sending Scheffler and Morikawa holed up in the clubhouse for 90 minutes. After returning, both players birdied two of the final three holes to keep Scheffler in the lead by four strokes.
But that four-stroke lead is much smaller than the seven-stroke lead he held on the first day.
But Scheffler continued to hit beautiful tee shots all day, despite two errors on the 13th and 14th holes, and if he keeps it up, no one will be able to catch him.
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.
