Atlanta — Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler They’ve played a lot of golf together in 2024, so much so that they’ve joked they don’t have much to say to each other anymore.
And yet, Schauffele has plenty to talk about after Thursday’s round. He was given a front-row spot thanks to Scheffler’s brilliant 6-under 65, the lowest round of the day. Tour Championship who defeated the world’s number 1 player Record lead,
“Scotty was in almost every fairway,” Schauffele said nonchalantly.
“It looked like he was practicing wedges while he was out there. If you’re in the fairway, you can attack this golf course.”
In fact, Scheffler missed only four fairways on Thursday, giving him plenty of chances. After bogeying the first hole, where he missed the fairway just right, Scheffler played 7-under par at East Lake. He made seven birdies and 10 pars and is now tied with Schoffel and collin morikawa,
Meanwhile, Schauffele matched Scheffler from the start. He birdied the opening hole, moved to 9-under and joined the lead. Scheffler started the Tour Championship at 10-under via the Starting Strokes format, while Schauffele began at 8-under.
But unlike Scheffler, Schauffele kept his cool the rest of the way. He made just two birdies, on the par-5 6th and par-5 14th, and then countered with two drop shots on the par-3 11th and par-4 16th.
“It started off okay,” Schauffele said of his 1-under 70.
“Yeah, unfortunately I’m probably a little bit behind. I’m just going to hit a few balls here with the sun setting, but I’ll figure it out.”
Schauffele found only seven fairways, yet managed to hit 13 greens.
“I hit it into the rough a lot, and with the new greens, I think I scored OK compared to the ones I hit poorly,” Schauffele said.
“But yeah, overall, it was a really bad day. It wasn’t anything to be proud of or hate.”
He still has three days to overcome a seven-shot deficit, but it won’t be easy. By the way, Schauffele’s record is excellent. East LakeSo anything is possible.
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.