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 large because it appeared.
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 a must to be within the fairways and hit your quantity, and he is been killing everybody at that every one yr,” Schauffele mentioned. “I do know he isn’t 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 pictures again to start out the day and has seen sufficient of Scheffler this yr 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 power and simply form of staying alive on the market.”
They nonetheless have their work lower out for them.
Scheffler is the No. 1 seed within the FedEx Cup and commenced the finale with a two-shot lead. He is also taking part in in addition to he has all yr, 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 at first of the day.
He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his last three holes and reached 21-under par. Morikawa was at 17 underneath and Schauffele was one other shot behind.
Nobody else was nearer than 9 pictures to Scheffler.
At stake for Scheffler is an opportunity to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he did not do as the highest seed every of the previous two years. However he appears to be like 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 a giant activity chasing him.
Scheffler started the spherical with a 7-iron that he thought was going to go away him a 20-foot have a look at birdie, besides that it caught the flawed facet of the ridge and rolled off the inexperienced, down a extreme slope and settled 90 away in opposition to a collar of tough.
He holed a 20-foot par putt, a very good begin that despatched him on his approach. Even with Morikawa and Schauffele scoring early, Scheffler nonetheless led by six pictures 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, notably together with his two closing birdies.
Schauffele, who began the event two pictures 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 following 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.
“As we speak was a day the place I had a giant 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 a very good job of staying in my very own world on the market and put up a very good 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 pictures behind. Sam Burns, Scheffler’s greatest buddy on tour, birdied his final two holes for a 68 and misplaced a lot floor he stopped trying on the leaderboard. He was 10 pictures behind.
“He is one of the best golfer on the planet. He is actually good with leads,” Burns mentioned. “It is not an ideal factor for us.”
