Slow start doesn't keep Scottie Scheffler out of FedExCup picture

ATLANTA – World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was forced to scramble out of the gates Friday at the TOUR Championship, but as he so often does, an over-par start was like water off his back in a second-round 3-under 67 at East Lake Golf Club.

The 2024 FedExCup champion missed three of the first five greens, including the opening par 4, where, for the second straight day, he escaped with a gutsy par after being forced to lay up. A not-so-routine two-putt from outside 46 feet on the 456-yard, par-4 fifth was followed by a trio of birdies to get to red figures. Scheffler made a solid par on the second-most difficult hole, the par-3 ninth, before stuffing wedges and converting birdies on Nos. 10 and 12.

He was unable to take his round any deeper, with a two-putt birdie on the par-5 18th salvaging an even-par final six holes. More importantly, Scheffler retained his T15 position on the leaderboard in this winner-take-all week. At 8 under, he sits two shots behind 36-hole co-leaders Viktor Hovland and Ryan Gerard.

“Yesterday I had a clean card. Today I made a few bogeys. That's pretty much the difference in the score,” said Scheffler, who will play alongside reigning THE PLAYERS Championship winner Cameron Young Saturday after he shot a second-round-low 62.

Despite the frustrating start to his second round, Scheffler leads the 29-man field in Strokes Gained: Approach to Green, a statistical category he entered the tournament eighth on the PGA TOUR. He also had 28 putts to complement his already rock-solid approach play.

He spent some time hitting balls on the range immediately after signing his scorecard – the timing of it partly because of a lightning threat – but nonetheless with the goal of trying to mend any untidiness he felt on the grounds at East Lake. Scheffler said he felt even on the ninth hole that the horn signaling a weather delay could have been blown.

With winds up, or at the very least switching directions, on the back nine, Scheffler did not get into the clubhouse unscathed. He uncharacteristically airmailed the 17th green from just 135 yards out lying in the fairway and even the world’s best was hard-pressed to get up and down from an unenviable spot, short-sided and in an auto-flop zone. Scheffler dropped a high-arcing pitch only two feet onto the green but could not keep the ball within 10 feet, and his par putt slid by.

“Oh gosh, get down, as I watched it get in the jet stream up there and fly,” said Scheffler as he bent down with hands on knees for a good while in disbelief.

Even when the 21-time TOUR winner is off, he finds a way to turn an average round into one that keeps him in touch with the leaders. Scheffler is one of three past FedExCup champions within three strokes of the pace, Hovland (2023) sharing the lead and 2018 winner Justin Rose at 7 under after a bogey-free 5-under 65.

Scheffler knows a thing or two about keeping momentum rolling on Moving Day at East Lake, posting four 66s in six previous Saturdays of the TOUR Championship. He will need to be firmly on the gas pedal this weekend, as 19 players are within five strokes of Gerard and Hovland.

If you ask Scheffler’s playing partner on Friday, Ludvig Åberg, who is among that pack at 7 under, the FedExCup No. 1 will have no problem with that demand.

“The main thing that I think about when you're playing with Scottie is you're going to see a lot of good golf, which definitely helps. It's nice to see good shots. It puts some nice pictures in your mind,” Åberg said. “We get along great, and I enjoy playing with him. Obviously, most of the time he's playing good golf.

“Any time you play with him, it's a good thing.”