After a tumultuous morning for Scottie Scheffler, which included a traffic incident with law enforcement outside Valhalla, the World No. 1 collected himself to birdie two of the first three holes on his way to shooting 5-under 66 Friday at the PGA Championship.
Scheffler kept his hopes alive of winning a second straight major championship and trailed 2020 PGA Champion Collin Morikawa by two shots after the morning wave. He enters the weekend trailing leader Xander Schauffele by three shots.
LEADERBOARD: See the latest scores from Valhalla
“As far as best rounds of my career, I would say it was pretty good,” Scheffler said.
For a man who is a stickler for his routine before a round of golf, Scheffler had to figure this one out on the fly.
“I feel like my head is still spinning,” he said Friday afternoon while speaking with the media. “I can't really explain what happened this morning.
"I was just sitting there waiting and I started going through my warmup, I felt like there was a chance I may be able to still come out here and play. I started going through my routine and I tried to get my heart rate down as much as I could today, but like I said, I still feel like my head is spinning a little bit. But I was fortunate to be able to make it back out and play some golf today.”
A second-round 66 for Scottie.@ROLEX | #Rolex pic.twitter.com/RnBKK8m2q3
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 17, 2024
The opening birdie came on the par-5 10th hole when Scheffler hit pitching wedge to 3 feet. He made a putt from 26 feet on the 12th hole and another on the par-5 18th to make the turn. Birdies on Nos. 2, 4 and 7 were from 6, 3 and 20 feet respectively to help him hover around the top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
“It was nice to be able to get inside the ropes and do what I love to do,” Scheffler said. “I love competing out here on tour, I love playing in major championships. I've kept myself in the tournament now with a pretty chaotic day, so I'm going to go from here and focus on getting some rest and recovery and get ready for a grind the last two days, and we'll see how the leaderboard shakes out, but hopefully I won't be too far back going into tomorrow.”
Scheffler has been the man to beat all year in men’s golf, having won four big events, including The Players Championship and the Masters. He’s won each of his last two starts and only one player – Stephan Jaeger – has finished ahead of him since March. Scheffler took the last three weeks off from competition to spend time with his wife Meredith, who gave birth to their first child, son Bennett, last week.
