World no. 1 Scottie Scheffler displays his record-equalling card after the second round of the St Jude Championship at TPC Southwind in Memphis on Friday. Image courtesy PGA Tour/X.
By Rahul Banerji
Scottie Scheffler equalled the course record on his way into the second day lead of the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennesse, on Friday.
The world number one birdied six of his first seven holes as he blitzed a steamy TPC Southwind en route to a course-record equalling 9 under par 61 and a three-shot lead on 11 under 129 after opening with a 2 under 68 on Thursday.
South Korea’s Sungjae Im (66-66) and Viktor Hovland (68-64) of Norway shared second place on 8 under 132 with Swede Ludvig Aberg in solo fourth place at 7 under 133 (68-65).
In all, Scheffler had 11 birdies and two bogeys in the sweltering Tennessee heat in search of a second victory for the current season after early success at The American Express in his first start of the season.
“It’s like you always want to try to get off to a good start,” Scheffler said after his round.
Dream run
“I was able to do that today. Really just a dream start. Probably one of the best starts I’ve had on Tour, to be honest. I couldn’t tell you a time where I’ve been lower early in the round.”
Playing alongside the world no. 1 Rory McIlroy followed his opening 74 of Thursday with a level par 70 to share 60th place on 4 over 144.
Day one co-leader Jordan Speith (65-69) was tied for fifth on 6 under 134 with Nico Echavarria (68-66), the India-bound Tommy Fleetwood (66-68) and Brian Harman (70-64) while Indo-Canadian Sudarshan Yellamaraju (70-65) was T9 on 5 under 135.
According to notes shared by the PGA Tour, Scheffler is the ninth player in the ShotLink Era (since 2003) to score 61 or better with multiple bogeys in the same round and the first since Justin Rose’s final-round 60 at the 2022 RBC Canadian Open.
He led the field in the second round in Shots Gained: Approach the Green (3.479) and SG: Putting (3.868) and after two rounds, topped in SG: Tee to Green (6.642) with 14 birdies in all ahead of Im’s 13.
(14; next best is 13 by Sungjae Im).
Hot putter
In all, Scheffler had 13 one-putts, gaining 3.874 shots on the field on the greens.
“I feel like yesterday I had a couple of putts that were right around the edge,” Scheffler said. “Today I was able to hole a good amount of putts.”
“I think it’s just golf. That’s really all it is. … It was nice to get out there early and knock in some putts and give myself some really good looks as well.”
After the St. Jude Championship, the top 50 in the FedExCup standings will advance to next week’s BMW Championship at the Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri and also qualify for all 2027 signature events, considerably raising the stakes for the final two rounds at TPC Southwind.
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