Up until Thursday, defending PGA Champion Scottie Scheffler – surprisingly, given his track record – had never led or co-led after 18 holes in a major championship.
But his 3-under 67 in Round 1 of the 108th PGA Championship gave him a share of the lead.
He got back to work early on Friday in Round 2 at Aronimink and it wasn’t easy. Scheffler bogeyed three of his first four holes to fall back to even par.
"Yeah, I mean, I didn't hit many fairways to start the round. I hit a good tee shot off 10, where I thought it would be in the fairway, and ends up in the rough. I can't get it to the green. That's probably the hardest fairway to hit on the golf course, just because of the pitch in it."
But Scheffler, playing the back nine first, got back on track after he hit his tee shot on the par-3 17th to within 2 feet for his first birdie of the day. He made the turn in 2-over 37.
"Hit the really nice shot into 17 to kind of get things going. Definitely feel like stealing at least a shot there with how hard that holes playing with the wind in off the left."
On the more gettable front side, Scheffler birdied the par-4 fourth hole after knocking his approach shot to 5 feet. He would bogey the par-4 fifth hole after getting a little too aggressive with his 5-foot par attempt.
"[I] was able to make a few birdies on the back nine... as the conditions were getting better I wish I could have gotten a few more there. But overall, I did some good stuff. It was still pretty gusty as we played our back nine, which was the front nine as well. So overall just a challenging morning."
The par-5 ninth hole, which has played as the easiest this week, gave Scheffler one last birdie chance and he took advantage. Scheffler was just short of the green in two shots and managed to get up and down for birdie and the 1-over 71.
Scheffler came into this week with three consecutive runner-up finishes, including the Masters.
He’s looking to join Brooks Koepka (2018 and 2019), Tiger Woods (1999 and 2000; 2006 and 2007) as just the third player to successfully defend their PGA Championship in the modern stroke-play era, which began in 1958.
