The second round of the Tour Championship has left us with two certainties. The first is that something strange would have to happen in the remaining 36 holes for Scottie Scheffler not to lift the FedEx Cup for the first time in his career. The second is that it is much easier to be victims this Saturday of an alien abduction than the victory at East Lake is not for Scheffler, Collin Morikawa or Xander Schauffele. Any other candidate already seems like science fiction.
Scheffler (-21) has done his homework more than notably, we would almost say outstandingly. Starting as leader with a seven-stroke lead, he has handed in a card of 66 strokes again displaying a tee to green exhibition very well finished with the putter. His only bogey of the tournament has come due to a poisoned fried egg. His second shot on the 13th crashed and stuck against the bunker exit slope to the right of the green. Such was the position of the ball that he couldn’t even aim at the flag. Well, even so, he left himself an option that didn’t go in from about two and a half meters to save par.
The world’s Number One is in destroyer mode. He has given up that stroke and has let the 14th hole, par 5, slip away without getting the birdie. He hasn’t made much more concession. The rest, except for a great par of par that he has taken out on hole 1, has been a constant recital of birdie options between two and five meters. The so-called Scheffler recital.
There is not much that can be blamed on good old Scottie and yet he has gone from having a seven-stroke lead to facing the weekend with four over Collin Morikawa (-17) and five over Xander Schauffele (-16). The thing is that these two gentlemen have insisted on giving excitement to the FedEx Cup with two dazzling rounds of 63, new record of the renovated East Lake, and 64. Morikawa has executed high school golf, lethal on the greens, and even putting some from outside, like on the 13th, the hole that has tightened things up in this Tour Championship.
Meanwhile, Schauffele has been masterful on the greens. He has practically put everything in. For birdie and for par. He does not lose his angel in East Lake, no matter how much they have turned the field around like a sock. By the way, the results are still low and the reason is that the PGA Tour has decided to make the field as easy as possible. Maybe they have overdone it… it is not pleasant to see a player thirteen under par (Morikawa) after two rounds in the grand final of the PGA Tour. Scheffler is at -11.
The FedEx Cup, unless there is a major surprise, is a matter of three. The rest are a world away. The fourth position is shared by Adam Scott, Sahith Theegala and Wyndham Clark with -12. Rory McIlroy (-8) is discarded. The second round was interrupted by an electrical storm when the star match was on hole 15. There was a stoppage of about an hour and a half and they returned in time to complete all the rounds.
