ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler placed on one other clinic from tee-to-green at East Lake on Friday for a 5-under 66 and a four-shot lead on the Tour Championship that did not appear as massive because it regarded.
Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele had one thing to do with that.
In a second spherical that introduced a way of urgency for these chasing the No. 1 participant in golf, Morikawa responded with 9 birdies, two on the ultimate two holes after a 93-minute storm delay, for an 8-under 63.
Schauffele completed with a pair of 12-foot putts — one for par, one for birdie, each feeling simply as necessary as the opposite — for a 64.
“This course proper now with how agency the greens are, it is a ball-striking kind deal the place it’s important to be within the fairways and hit your quantity, and he is been killing everybody at that each one 12 months,” Schauffele mentioned. “I do know he is not going to let up, so there’s just one technique to get him.”
Morikawa has laid out a plan for the week. Nonetheless, he was seven photographs again to start out the day and has seen sufficient of Scheffler this 12 months to know what to anticipate.
“He’ll proceed to make birdies,” Morikawa mentioned. “He is driving it actually, very well right here and also you’re giving your self sufficient wedges to make some scoring alternatives on the market. For me, it is simply bringing vitality and simply type of staying alive on the market.”
They nonetheless have their work minimize out for them.
Scheffler is the No. 1 seed within the FedEx Cup and started the finale with a two-shot lead. He is also taking part in in addition to he has all 12 months, and people instantly behind him within the FedEx Cup weren’t at their greatest within the opening spherical. That accounted for Scheffler having a seven-shot lead firstly of the day.
He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his ultimate three holes and reached 21-under par. Morikawa was at 17 beneath and Schauffele was one other shot behind.
Nobody else was nearer than 9 photographs to Scheffler.
At stake for Scheffler is an opportunity to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he didn’t do as the highest seed every of the previous two years. However he seems extra comfy on an East Lake course that has been overhauled — “This isn’t the identical course,” he mentioned when he arrived Monday for his first look — and everybody has an enormous activity chasing him.
Scheffler started the spherical with a 7-iron that he thought was going to depart him a 20-foot take a look at birdie, besides that it caught the mistaken facet of the ridge and rolled off the inexperienced, down a extreme slope and settled 90 away towards a collar of tough.
He holed a 20-foot par putt, an excellent begin that despatched him on his means. Even with Morikawa and Schauffele scoring early, Scheffler nonetheless led by six photographs early on the again 9 till he made his first bogey in 29 holes and Morikawa chipped in for birdie, a two-shot swing.
Morikawa had 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch across the flip, solely to see his tee shot to the eleventh bounce arduous and roll off the again of the inexperienced, resulting in bogey. However he recovered nicely sufficient, significantly together with his two closing birdies.
Schauffele, who began the event two photographs behind because the No. 2 seed, misplaced floor with a 70 on the primary day. He sorted out most of his swing points and had a bogey-free day.
Scheffler tried to not get caught up in his seven-shot lead — a product of his 65 on Thursday and the subsequent 5 gamers behind him within the FedEx Cup doing no higher than 69 — although it was uncommon to see a six-shot lead on the entrance 9 on a Friday.
“Right now was a day the place I had an enormous lead, however there was an enormous group of men proper there, so clearly some guys are going to play fairly nicely,” Scheffler mentioned. “However I did an excellent job of staying in my very own world on the market and put up an excellent spherical of golf.”
He went out in 32. Morikawa and Schauffele needed to maintain making birdies simply to maintain this from turning right into a runaway. Scheffler’s lone mistake was going bunker-to-bunker on the par-4 thirteenth and lacking an 8-foot par putt.
Scheffler is driving it so nicely — he missed solely three fairways — that he did not have greater than a 7-iron right into a par 4 and is setting a tricky goal for everybody to chase.
Adam Scott (67), Wyndham Clark (67) and Sahith Theegala (66) had been 9 photographs behind. Sam Burns, Scheffler’s greatest good friend on tour, birdied his final two holes for a 68 and misplaced a lot floor he stopped wanting on the leaderboard. He was 10 photographs behind.
“He is the very best golfer on the planet. He is actually good with leads,” Burns mentioned. “It is not an amazing factor for us.”
