Xander Schauffele continues to impress at Valhalla Golf Membership as he leads after Day 2 of the 2024 PGA Championship. He fired off a 3-under 68 to sit down at 12-under on the match and maintain a one-shot lead over Collin Morikawa.
Schauffele needed to combat onerous on Friday. He went out in 32 strokes, making three birdies within the course of. He went birdie-bogey on 10 and 11 on the again 9, then settled for par the remainder of the way in which residence.
The 7-time PGA Tour winner confirmed a variety of grit on Friday to take care of the highest spot on the PGA Championship leaderboard.
“Whenever you haven’t gained a golf match in a couple of years, it’s important to be fairly resilient,” Schauffele stated.
“I’m simply affected person and making an attempt to play the very best golf I can and keep out of my method. I do know I’m enjoying actually good golf proper now, and all I can do is concentrate on my course of and my speak with Austin, and that’s about it.”
This week marks the second match in a row with him in competition heading into the weekend. Schauffele fell quick final week as Rory McIlroy’s unimaginable Sunday spherical capsided the 30-year-old’s momentum.
Regardless of not having a victory for the reason that 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, he didn’t let one other runner-up end bum him out. Schauffele acquired proper again to work for Valhalla, and it’s paying off to this point.
“I used to be bummed out I didn’t win, however I knew I used to be enjoying nicely,” he stated. “I had a few hiccups there on Sunday on the improper time. Rory performed unbelievably nicely. I understand how I’m hitting it, and my greatest concern was having sufficient relaxation to study this golf course in time earlier than we teed off on Thursday.”
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Picture by Andrew Redington/Getty Photos
It’s his first time enjoying Valhalla. In Spherical 1, he was No. 2 in strokes gained placing, selecting up 4.167 pictures. Nonetheless, Schauffele did a 180-degree shift on Friday as he was No. 115 in strokes gained, shedding 1.203 strokes to the sector on the placing greens.
He is aware of that in a leaderboard like this, with so many gamers inside putting distance, the weekend will probably be about staying in his lane. If Shauffele desires to win his first main championship, he should put his blinders on and get ruthless on the course.
“I feel as quickly as 62 was posted, there’s simply blood within the water,” he stated. “If the roles had been reversed, it’s type of like everybody type of feels they will shoot low now. That’s simply the way it goes out right here. So, I feel it helps to maintain the pinnacle down, at the least for now. It’s solely two rounds.”
Schauffele and Morikawa will tee off collectively on Saturday after the remainder of the sector completes the second spherical. Play stopped at 8:41 p.m. ET as a result of darkness, with a handful of teams left to complete their 36 holes.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf workers author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. For extra golf protection, make sure you observe us @_PlayingThrough on all main social platforms. You can too observe her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
