OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. — Scottie Scheffler felt good enough about his short game that he was willing to take on a long shot with high risk.
Like everything else Saturday, it worked out just fine for him in the BMW Championship.
In wind that gusted through tree-lined Olympia Fields Country Club, Scheffler hit a driver off the fairway on the par-5 15th hole that traveled 299 yards — a lot of it on the ground — to just short of the green to set up his seventh and final birdie in a round of 6-under-par 64.
It gave him a share of the lead with England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who played a clean round until having to salvage a bogey on the final hole for a 66.
“I haven’t hit driver off the deck as much with this driver as I have drivers in the past,” Scheffler said. “The shot is really shaped well for that kind of play. … I tried it the first day because I thought it would be fun, and I hit a pretty good shot. And then I did it again today because it was fun.”