Scottie Scheffler equalled the Memorial Park course record he set in 2021 to take a one-shot lead at the weather-affected Houston Open, while Rory McIlroy made the cut despite being hampered by a weather delay.
It was the most complete round of the year for Scheffler, who missed the first month of the season recovering from a freak glass puncture wound sustained at Christmas.
Scheffler opened his round with two birdies, the second of which saw him hole in from just inside 30 feet after the only missed green of his eight-under 62.
“Yesterday I felt like I made a couple key par saves, and today I felt like – for the most part – I kept the golf course in front of me and I had a lot of looks for birdie,” Scheffler said.
“I didn’t feel like I was struggling for par too much and that was mostly because I was in the fairway.”
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Scottie Scheffler’s putting was at its blistering best as he took the clubhouse lead in the Houston Open at 11-under after 36 holes
It was the eighth time Scheffler shot 62 or lower – one of those was a 59 in the FedEx Cup playoffs at TPC Boston in 2020 – and his first since he shot 62 in the final round at Le Golf National to win the Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.
He leads by one shot over Canada’s Taylor Pendrith and Colombia’s Nicolas Echavarria.
Weather wreaks havoc on McIlroy
Rory McIlroy played in the afternoon and started out 11 shots behind Scheffler. He carded back-to-back birdies and bogeyed the seventh hole before play was suspended due to lightning.
Once play could resume McIlroy was outside the cut, before three successive birdies from the 16th lifted him to four-under-par.
“I holed a couple of putts,” McIlroy said. “That was it. It was nice to see a couple putts go in and get finished.
“It was a little dicey there at the end. Nice to finish the round the way I did.”
After a round interrupted by a two-hour stoppage, McIlroy finished with a 66 as play in the second round was called off for the day as darkness fell.
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That leaves him seven strokes off the pace set by world No 1 Scheffler.
“It was a lot different than we thought it was going to be,” Scheffler said. “Today looked like – checking the forecast this morning – it was going to be one of those days where we’re going to be playing on and off, looking at a few delays out there.”
Instead, he was on from the start with a 10-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole and a 25-footer on the 11th. Scheffler played bogey-free for the second straight round.
Scheffler felt his iron play was not as sharp as he wanted but knew he had a good feel on the greens and did not have to attack pins if there was no need.
It led to a stress-free round that featured eight birdies and left Scheffler in pole position going into the weekend of his final start before The Masters, live on Sky Sports.
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