ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler put on another clinic from tee to green at East Lake Golf Club on Friday for a 5-under-par 66 and a four-shot lead at the Tour Championship that didn’t seem as big as it looked.
Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele had something to do with that.
In a second round that brought a sense of urgency for those chasing the No. 1 player in golf at the PGA Tour’s 2024 season finale, Morikawa responded with nine birdies — including two on the final two holes after a 93-minute storm delay — for an 8-under 63.
Schauffele’s 64 was finished off with a pair of 12-foot putts: one for par, one for birdie, both feeling just as important as the other.
“This course right now with how firm the greens are, it’s a ball-striking-type deal where you have to be in the fairways and hit your number, and he’s been killing everyone at that all year,” Schauffele said of Scheffler, on top in both the Official World Golf Ranking and the FedEx Cup standings. “I know he’s not going to let up, so there’s only one way to get him.”
Morikawa has laid out a plan for the tournament. Still, he was seven shots back to start the day and has seen enough of Scheffler this year to know what to expect.
“He’s going to continue to make birdies,” Morikawa said. “He’s driving it really, really well here, and you’re giving yourself enough wedges to make some scoring opportunities out there. For me, it’s just bringing energy and just kind of staying alive out there.”
They still have their work cut out for them.
As the No. 1 seed, Scheffler began the Tour Championship with a two-shot lead over the second-seeded Schauffele — and more than that over others in the 30-player field. He also is playing as well as he has all year, and those immediately behind him in the FedEx Cup chase were not at their best in the opening round.
That accounted for Scheffler having a seven-shot lead at the start of the second round Friday.
He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his final three holes and reached 21 under. Morikawa was at 17 under, Schauffele was another shot behind, and no one else was closer than nine shots to Scheffler.
At stake for the 28-year-old Texan is a chance to win the FedEx Cup and its $25 million prize, which he failed to do as the top seed each of the past two years. Now he looks more comfortable on an overhauled East Lake — “This is not the same course,” he said when he arrived Monday for his first look at the renovation — and everyone has a big task chasing him.
Scheffler began the round with a 7-iron shot he thought was going to leave him a 20-foot look at birdie, except that it caught the wrong side of the ridge and rolled off the green, then down a severe slope before settling 90 away against a collar of rough.
He holed a 20-foot par putt, a good start that sent him on his way. Even with Morikawa and Schauffele scoring early, Scheffler still led by six shots early on the back nine until he made his first bogey in 29 holes and Morikawa chipped in for a birdie, a two-shot swing.
Morikawa had four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn, only to see his tee shot to the 11th hole bounce hard and roll off the back of the green, leading to a bogey. He recovered well enough, particularly with his two closing birdies.
Schauffele lost ground with a 70 on the first day. He sorted out most of his swing trouble and had a bogey-free Friday.
Scheffler tried not to get caught up in his seven-shot lead — a product of his 65 on Thursday and the next five players behind him in the FedEx Cup doing no better than 69 — though it was unusual to see a six-shot advantage on the front nine on a Friday in a PGA Tour event.
“Today was a day where I had a big lead, but there was a huge group of guys right there, so obviously some guys are going to play pretty well,” said Scheffler, whose success this year already includes wins at The Players Championship, the Masters and the Paris Olympics. “But I did a good job of staying in my own world out there and put up a good round of golf.”
He went out in 32. Morikawa and Schauffele had to keep making birdies just to keep it from turning into a runaway. Scheffler’s lone mistake was going bunker to bunker on the par-4 13th and missing an eight-foot par putt.
Scheffler is driving it so well — he missed only three fairways — that he didn’t have more than a 7-iron into a par 4 and is setting a tough target for everyone to chase over the final 36 holes of regulation this weekend.
Wyndham Clark (67), Adam Scott (67) and Sahith Theegala (66) were nine shots behind, tied for fourth. Sam Burns, Scheffler’s best friend on the circuit, birdied his last two holes for a 68 and lost so much ground he stopped looking at the leaderboard.
He was 10 shots behind.
“He’s the best golfer on the planet. He’s really good with leads,” Burns said. “It’s not a great thing for us.”