Scottie Scheffler moves toward medal, but lead appears to be dwindling at PGA Tour Finals

Atlanta — after a set PGA Tour “Records” at the Tour Championship On Thursday, Scottie Scheffler Even a day later, he looked like the best player in the world.

Nevertheless, Scheffler, despite erasing East Lake Off the tee, his massive lead dwindled from seven to four after posting a 5-under 66.

“I feel like my swing is in good shape. I’ve been playing well the last couple of days,” Scheffler said.

“There’s a lot of quality stuff out there, and yes, things are in good shape going into the weekend.”

Maintained a four-shot lead through 36 holes PGA Tour The better you can perform in the final, the better. But Scheffler has finished well ahead of the Tour Championship before and has yet to win the FedEx Cup. Still, the former Texas Longhorn doesn’t feel the pressure collin morikawa and Xander Schauffele, who are four and five strokes behind him, respectively.

“It’s the second round of the tournament. It’s the second round. I mean, it’s a long tournament. I’m just trying my best to stay out there and make shots,” Scheffler said.

“Today, I did this job very well.”

did you know Scheffler closes in with his driver On the par-4 1st, the most challenging hole on the course, he drove his tee ball 319 yards from the middle of the fairway, having made bogey the day before by missing the short grass right.

Scheffler then hit a 7-iron into this tricky green complex, but it bounced hard and missed the left side of the green. The low trajectory, combined with the firmness of the green, carried Scheffler’s ball into one of Andrew Green’s newly installed collection areas, setting up a dangerous up-and-down from 30 yards out.

The defending Masters champion hit his chip shot, but it wasn’t like his superhuman short game. He left himself a 20-footer for par, then drained it.

“It was a great par,” Scheffler said.

“This is one of the best up-and-downs I’ve had in a while. It’s a great way to start the day, really. I’m sitting in the fairway and hoping I have a good chance to birdie. But at the end of the day, on No. 1, you’re just trying to make four. It’s a very tough hole. Like I said, you can land it in the middle of the green and end up in a very tough spot.”

Long par putts like Scheffler made earlier help build momentum early.

Two holes later, he made the first of his six birdies of the day by putting a wedge to 10 feet. He had a lot of wedges on Friday, thanks to his excellent play off the tee. Having a wedge in your hand at East Lake leads to a lot of birdies.

Despite this, Scheffler felt he missed some great opportunities.

“A lot of the putts didn’t go very far out of the cup,” Scheffler said.

“But there’s a lot of quality stuff out there, yeah, in good shape going into the weekend.”

Still, a two-hole stretch on the back nine over the final 36 holes of the Tour Championship has kept things somewhat interesting. Scheffler temporarily lost his way with the big stick.

On the par-4 13th, Scheffler missed his second fairway of the day and headed into the left bunker off the tee. Then he hit a low, spiny cut through the trap, a ball-flight that didn’t look like it belonged to the world’s best player. His Titleist 7 came to a stop in a fried egg lie in the greenside bunker, as he also short-sided himself. Still, Scheffler miraculously recovered, giving himself a nine-footer for par. But he missed.

Meanwhile, his playing partner Morikawa chipped in for birdie, a two-shot swing that cut Scheffler’s lead to five from seven.

Then, on the next hole, Scheffler missed the fairway left again. This time, his ball landed in the Bermuda rough between the galleries, and he couldn’t find the green in two. Instead, his second shot landed in a collection area below and to the left of the green. But unlike the first hole, Scheffler failed to get up and down. He settled for par while Morikawa made a 22-footer for birdie on the same green, increasing his lead to four.

A few moments later, PGA Tour play suspended due to lightning In the field, that sent Scheffler and Morikawa to the clubhouse for 90 minutes. Both players birdied two of their final three holes on the return, keeping Scheffler’s four-shot lead intact.

But a four-shot lead is much smaller than the seven-shot lead from day one.

Still, despite missing twice on 13 and 14, Scheffler hit the ball beautifully off the tee all day. No one will be able to catch him if he continues to do that.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_playingthrough For more golf news, follow on Twitter. @jack_milko Too.