You need to be careful again for the rest of the PGA Tour. Scotty Schaeffler is back in vengeance.
Schaeffler tied the Memorial Park course records to regulations with a stunning 8-under 62, including Zero Bosie and 17 greens. He is currently sitting at 11 under par on top of the open leaderboard of Texas kids Houston.
Of course, Scheffler won nine global events last year, including seven on the PGA Tour. He won the Green Jacket, the Olympics and the FedEx Cup, comparing the 2000s 2024 campaign with the Tiger Woods campaign.
“I hit a lot of fairways there and gave myself a lot of looks,” Schaeffler said.
“Today I stopped a fair amount of putts and a few long putts. This is always a good thing.”
Two weeks ago, at the Player Championship, Schaeffler expressed dissatisfaction with his putting, saying that many of the putts that fell a year ago weren't falling at this time of year. But that wasn't the case at Memorial Park on Friday. Schaeffler drained 112 feet of putts and ranked second on the field on strokes.
His day began on hole 10. I drained 10 footers for birdie. Schaeffler then continued that on the 11th, trying out this 26-foot birdie on this 189-yard par-3. You felt he was working with putters out of the gate on Friday.
“It's always fine to see one of them come in,” Schaeffler said of his maker on the 11th.
“It was good momentum to start the day.”
Then, in par 5, 16th place, Schaeffler packed his third shot about six feet away, changing birdie try. Then in the next hole, with a PAR-4 17 with all the water on the right, Schaeffler sounded a solid approach within 5 feet, pouring it into the fourth birdie of the day.
Still, Schaeffler said his ball strike could be better. The statistics show somewhat that, as the number one in the Strokes field was ranked 13th in the world on Friday.
“It was a day when I felt my ball strike might have gotten a little better and I managed to drill some putts,” Schaeffler said.
“I hit a lot of green but my irons felt barely off, and I was bringing them a little closer to the hole, but overall I kept it green and left myself looking at myself.
Certainly a good result.
Schaeffler has four more birdies in the back nine, the front side of Memorial Park. His par breaker came to the second, fifth, seventh and eighth holes, and his birdie appeared second and second through a 29 footer from the bottom of the hole.
He waxes poeticly with his putter, and whenever Schaeffler does it, he is an unstoppable boundary.
Jack Mirco is a golf staff writer who plays SB Nation. Follow him with x @jack_milko.
