GORDON SEAY PHOTO
No. 1-ranked Scottie Scheffler worked his way to the top again.
Scheffler (picturwd) posted a five-under-par 67 to tie for the lead with seventh-ranked Wyndham Clark, 10th ranked Brian Harman, Shane Lowry of Ireland, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Russell Henley after two rounds of the 59th Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando, Fla.
“I think I just did a great job of staying patient, and just had a great finish,” said Scheffler, who won the API two years ago. “There’s a lot of names up at the top of the leaderboard right now. It’s pretty stacked going into the weekend. It depends on what they do with the greens. I saw the wind was going to be up this weekend, so it might be a survival test.
“I would say. I think I was even for the round going into No. 12, and would have been five-under on my last seven holes, so yeah, it was just a really good finish. I think the putts just started going in the hole today, and I would argue that there were a few more that I thought were going to go in that didn’t.
“But I’m proud of how I finished today to give myself a good chance.”
Scheffler, the 2022 Masters champion, sank a 23-foot eagle putt on the 12th hole and added the last three of his five birdies in a row through No. 17 while posting a 36-hole score of seven-under-par 137.
Clark, the reigning U.S. Open champion, collected nine birdies against three bogeys in a 66; Harman made his lone bogey on the last hole against five birdies in a 68; Henley made two birdies on each and a bogey at No. 9 in a 69; Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, birdied the last hole for a 70, and Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, also birdied No. 18 to salvage a 71.
“Nine birdies out here didn’t seem realistic, and so I really didn’t even know I made nine birdies until someone told me,” said Clark, who won at Pebble Beach last month. “Honestly, I bet you if I shot even par you would be in the top five and have a chance to win.
“Tomorrow is supposed to have some wind and be hot, so it’s going to get firmer and faster, which it’s already doing. Then it looks like maybe a little rain on Sunday, so it might ease up. But yeah, right now if you said: ‘Hey, you shoot three-under on the weekend,’ I would take it.”
Said Lowry, the first-round leader at 66: “I’m pretty happy to be where I am right now. Look, there’s no trophies given out today, so I’ll just dig in over the weekend and see where it leads me come Sunday.”
Will Zalatoris is one stroke back in solo seventh after a bogey-free 69, while Stephan Jaeger of Germany shot a bogey-free 67 and is one more down in a tie for eighth with Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, who had two birdies on each nine in a 70.
Fourth-ranked Viktor Hovland of Norway had five birdie on the back nine in a 69 and is three shots behind in a big tie for 10th with eighth-ranked Max Homa of Valencia and Cal, who made three birdies on the back nine in a 69; Byeong Hun An of South Korea (69); Justin Thomas (71); Nick Taylor of Canada (71); Sahith Theegala of Chino Hills and Pepperdine (72), and Sam Burns (72).
Fifth-ranked Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State is tied for 23rd after a 70, while second-ranked Rory McIlroy also shot 70 and is tied for 30th, sixth-ranked Patrick Cantlay of Los Alamitos and UCLA wound up at 72 and is tied for 46th.
Ninth-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick of England finished at 74-75—149 and missed the cut by two strokes, while defending champion Kurt Kitayama of Chico totaled 78-73—151 to miss the weekend by four shots.
For complete results and third-round tee times, visit: https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard
