Olympic champion Xander Schauffele produced a grandstand end to breathe some much-needed life into the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who began the week on 10 beneath par because the participant with essentially the most FedEx Cup factors forward of the season finale, was 5 shots clear after the opening spherical at East Lake.
Although the Masters champion remained out in entrance with a bogey-free 66 on Friday, he noticed his lead slashed to two shots as enjoying accomplice Schauffele completed birdie, birdie, eagle in his 63.
“It’s only the second round of the tournament, so I was just trying to go out there and play solid golf,” Scheffler informed Sky Sports. “If anything I would have wished to see a few more putts going in, but at the end of the day no bogeys and keeping a clean card is pretty nice.”
With Scheffler overlaying the primary three holes in two beneath par and Schauffele enjoying them in a single over, the hole between the Ryder Cup team-mates was as a lot as eight shots. However, Schauffele adopted his bogey on the third with birdies on the fourth and sixth and lined the again 9 in simply 29 shots to preserve the strain on.
“I saw he was quite a far pace ahead, but I just kind of peeked at the board and saw a bunch of guys shot some good scores,” Schauffele stated. “So I just knew if I could kind of hang tight, control my golf ball a little better, we’re going to have plenty of looks coming in.”
Former US Open champion Jon Rahm additionally shot 63 to path Scheffler by six shots, with defending FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay and Sungjae Im a stroke additional again.
“It’s going to take a really strong weekend from me and hopefully not a strong one from Scottie. That’s kind of what we’re looking for,” Rahm stated. “I think tomorrow could be a good day. If I can post another good round again tomorrow and he doesn’t shoot a low one, we’ll be in position.”
Rory McIlroy is 9 shots off the lead following a second consecutive 67.
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