Daily Tribune‘We’ll see how the winds are this weekend. I think it’ll only get tougher.’
SCOTTIE Scheffler cards a four-under par 68 to grab a three-stroke lead after the second round of the PGA Memorial tournament.
DYLAN BUELL/agence france-presse
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler grinded through brisk winds to fire a four-under par 68 and grab a three-stroke lead after the second round of the PGA Memorial tournament.
The two-time Masters champion, seeking his fifth victory of the year, stood on nine-under 135 after 36 holes at the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event in Muirfield Village.
“You’ve got to play it fairly conservative out here, just with how much trouble there is around the golf course. There’s a lot of hazards and you’ve got the heavy rough,” Scheffler said.
“Can be really tough to judge the wind. I’m just trying to do my best to execute. Sometimes I get the wind right and hit the right shot. Other times, things don’t work out as well.”
“We’ll see how the winds are this weekend. I think it’ll only get tougher.”
Defending champion Viktor Hovland of Norway fired his second 69 to share second with Canada’s Adam Hadwin, the 18-hole leader who settled for a 72 to finish on 128.
“Some nice gusts there,” Hovland said.
“And some steady winds make it even more difficult. So I did a good job of just hitting a bunch of fairways, but even then, there’s a lot of thinking and guessing going into the greens.”
“It’s just hard to get it close to the hole, but I managed to do that somehow.”
South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout and American Keegan Bradley shared fourth on 139 with Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg on 140.
Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy was on 141 with Americans Tony Finau, Akshay Bhatia and second-ranked Xander Schauffele.
Scheffler has four triumphs and two runner-up efforts in his past seven starts and appeared poised for another top-two finish in the final tuneup for next week’s US Open.
The 27-year-old American seeks his 10th career PGA Tour title.
Scheffler dropped his approach to eight feet and sank the birdie putt at the third hole to match Hadwin for the lead, then moved ahead with a birdie putt from just inside eight feet at the par-5 fifth to reach 7-under.
Scheffler made another birdie putt from just inside six feet at the ninth to reach the turn ahead by two.
