Xander Schauffele will be an interested spectator of the Players Championship on Friday afteroon after a morning round that will likely be enough to earn him a weekend tee time.
The two-time major champ produced a clutch two-putt birdie on TPC Sawgrass’ par-5 ninth, his final hole of the day, to move into red numbers at one under par for two days.
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For one of the tournament favorites, simply making the cut wouldn’t normally be much of a big deal. But in Schauffele’s case, he’s got the current best cut streak on the PGA Tour. One that he extended to 58 tournaments at Bay Hill last week with a late rally that moved him to the weekend on the number.
On Friday, Schauffele seemed like he’d make it comfortably after making two birdies and no bogeys through his first 11 holes. But a pair of bogeys dropped him back to even par as he got to No. 9. But a perfect drive and hybrid put him on the putting surface in two.
“Yeah, I was thinking about the cut line for sure,” Schauffele admitted to reporters after. “Knew I needed to make birdie. I think two-putting is probably the easiest way to birdie 9, and I was able to do that.”
At the conclusion of Schauffele’s round, Data Golf had the probability of the cut line moving to two under at only around 10 percent.
Of course, at this point we should remind everyone that Schauffele is still a long way from matching Tiger Woods’ record of 142(!) consecutive PGA Tour cuts.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
