Whether or not one buys into the adage “beware of the sick golfer” is academic if the golfer in question is Scottie Scheffler. It’s sort of a given whatever shape he’s in.
Scheffler was still contending with some variety of respiratory illness on Friday at Bellerive Country Club, and he is not yet contending for the BMW Championship trophy. Yet. But an inward 30 yielded a second-round five-under 65 that enabled him to get into red figures and into the conversation.
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The World No. 1 still has plenty of ground to make up to successfully defend his title, which is a predicament the Texas native knows all too well this season. Slow starts have been a habit, even when healthy. Still, Scheffler has proven continually to summon birdies on the weekend and give himself a chance to win when it looked like he should be counted out.
“Yeah, I’m a ways back, but I’m not out of it by any means,” Scheffler said after completing 36 holes in three-under 133, putting him nine back of leader Wyndham Clark, who shot 64. “I’ll see what I can do going out early tomorrow.”
What he did on Friday was complete a 27-hole warmup and then settle into a scoring mode that looked similar to his performance in last week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship that resulted in an eight-stroke victory, the largest on the PGA Tour this season.
During Thursday’s opening 72, Scheffler lost more than two strokes to the field in approach and putting. He gained in those categories on Friday, especially on the greens where he had made a turnaround of nearly five strokes. A week after he enjoyed the finest putting performance of his career, Scheffler converted 109 feet of putts in his second round.
He’ll need more of the same this weekend, which he is likely to get. Scheffler ranks second on tour in third-round scoring average and first in final-round scoring at 67.35. The man has a scorched-earth gear, which has produced five second-place finishes but no come-from-behind victories this year. Yet.
“I’m not where I would like to be. But, yeah, I had a good … I’ll probably have to have four nines like I did on the back nine today and that will give me a chance to win,” Scheffler, 30, said, while admitting to not feeling 100 percent. “So hopefully do more what did I on the back over the course of the next 36.”
