Scottie Scheffler grabs lead at Hero World Challenge
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Scottie Scheffler of the United States plays a shot on the 18th hole during the second round of the Hero World Challenge.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
MIAMI – World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler should never be doubted.
The American Olympic champion carded the round of the day on Dec 6 to surge atop the leaderboard after the second day at the Hero World Challenge in New Providence, the Bahamas.
A field of 20 players is at Albany Golf Club for the exclusive exhibition event hosted by Tiger Woods.
Scheffler, the defending champion, ended the first day three shots back of leader Cameron Young but came out sizzling on Dec 6, birdying seven of the first nine holes as he carded eight-under 64 for a 13-under 131 total.
He matched the lowest 36-hole total in the event, a mark set by Woods.
Scheffler managed just one more birdie on the par-four 14th but finished the round bogey-free, leaving him two shots ahead of Akshay Bhatia (66) and Justin Thomas (67), who are tied for second.
“Overall good day, eight under on this golf course is always a good score. Yeah, pretty solid,” he said. “A lot of it here is just keeping the ball in play. When it gets windy, it can be pretty challenging to putt these greens because they can be pretty fast.”
Scheffler, who won the Masters in April for the second time in three years, was sharp from the start, birdying the first four holes.
He added two more on the sixth and seventh holes before knocking in an eight-foot putt for his seventh birdie at the ninth.
None of his birdie putts on the first nine holes was longer than 17 feet.
After four straight pars to open the back nine, he buried a 22-footer for his final birdie of the day, giving him 14 against just one bogey through the first two rounds.
Bhatia and Thomas were also efficient, tallying just one bogey each on Dec 6.
Bhatia racked up seven birdies to pull even at second with Thomas, who carded six birdies, the last two coming after his bogey on the par-four 13th.
“It just was a very low, low stress five under,” Thomas said. “I didn’t feel like I had to grind on the majority of my birdie putts, a lot of them were tap-ins or whatnot.
“If I can just iron or wedge it just a little closer to the hole tomorrow and get some putts to go in, I feel like I’ve got a really good round out there this weekend.”
Young, who birdied eight holes without a bogey in the first round, had a disastrous second round.
After shooting even par on the front nine, he overrode two birdies with three bogeys before a costly-double bogey on the par-four 18th left him at three-over 75 for the round.
The American suffered the largest drop on the leaderboard, falling into a three-way tie for 10th at five under. The 27-year-old is still hunting his first PGA Tour win.
American Keegan Bradley (67) moved into fourth place at nine under, while Austria’s Sepp Straka and South Korea’s Im Sung-jae are in a tie for fifth after shooting 68s. REUTERS, AFP
