CHARLOTTE — By Scottie Scheffler standards, his second round at Quail Hollow wasn’t quite scintillating—his 68 moved him to give under on the tournament—but it was exactly what he needed. After an uneven opening round rife with mudballs in which he salvaged a two-under finish, he now finds himself tied for fifth place, three behind the leader Jhonattan Vegas but just a shot behind Mathieu Pavon and Matt Fitzpatrick in second. This represents the World No. 1 at his scariest—fully in the mix, his elite game rediscovered, and matched against a group of players who either have no major experience, or who haven’t been in contention for years. Only fools make ironclad declarations after 36 holes, but there’s no denying that he’s sitting pretty.
Ask Scheffler, and he’ll attribute it to his ability to absorb the blows Quail Hollow dishes out and keep on ticking.
“I think on the course in difficult setups like this, in major championships, you know you’re going to run into some bumps in the road, and there’s going to be challenges out there. It’s all about how you bounce back from them,” he said. “I didn’t really feel like I made very many good swings today until probably the 14th hole, and I was able to kind of put some stuff together coming down the stretch. I bounced back really well.”
He was singing the same tune on Thursday, when a double bogey on the 16th hole—attributable to one of the many mudballs on the day—set him back early in the morning. He recovered to make three birdies on the back, and Friday saw more of the same resilience. Starting on the first hole, he needed to make a nervy six-footer for par, and that was the start of a theme for the day that continued on three when he buried a 15-footer for his first birdie. Four standard pars followed, at which point a 10-foot birdie on 8 led to an opening-nine 33.
Kevin C. Cox
He tasted his first adversity on the relatively easy 10th, missing a five-footer and settling for par, and a bogey on 13 sent him down an increasingly crowded leaderboard. Then came the crucial bounceback: A bunker shot to two feet for a birdie on 14, and another on 15 with another solid pitch from 70 yards.
His big regret of the day may be 17, when a beautiful tee shot on the par-3 left him just three feet, but he couldn’t convert. Undeterred, he bombed his drive on the most difficult hole of the day, 18, and capped off the round with a final par.
“Yesterday and today were days that were pretty challenging out there,” he said, “so I’m proud to still be in the golf tournament and looking forward to another couple of days.”
In both of his previous major victories, at the 2022 and ’24 Masters, Scheffler led after 36 holes, so to fight back and capture his first PGA will require journeying into uncharted territory. He’ll be paired on Saturday with Max Homa, who along with Si Woo Kim shot a field-best 64 to reach five under. Homa and Fitzpatrick (the only other player within shouting distance of the lead to have a major win on his resume) are both playing the best tournament of their seasons to date, Jhonattan Vegas is a massive underdog even with a two-shot lead, and both Mathieu Pavon and Si Woo Kim have one combined major top 10 between them. It’s not just the top of the leaderboard that feels ripe for the plucking, either; below Scheffler, you have to climb all the way down to T-17 find a major winner (Bryson DeChambeau).
None of which is to say that this is remotely in the bag. Still, Scheffler seems at peace with what Quail Hollow offers—pain—which means he’s positioned well both literally and metaphorically to achieve triumph on the weekend.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
