Scheffler, Conners, and Hovland tied for the PGA lead after two rounds

PITTSFORD, NY — Sweaters one day, umbrellas the next. No one is sure what to expect at this PGA Championship except that Scottie Scheffler is bound for another major and Oak Hill is a great test.

Scheffler delivered a mixture of birdies and impressive recoveries from a rough, wet Friday until he couldn’t escape a final blitzkrieg in the 18th that cost him the lead, but certainly did little to dampen his optimism.

Scheffler said after a 2-under 68 that gave him a triple share of the lead with Victor Hovland and Corey Konners.

“I did a good job the first two days of keeping the golf course in front of me and scrambling well,” he said. “Hopefully tomorrow I’ll hit a few more lanes than I did today, make it a little easier on myself. But in the end, 2 is less than a good round about this place.”

Rain is in the forecast for Saturday, perhaps not enough to dampen expectations of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka playing together. They were rivals two years ago—remember the “Brooksy” chants directed at DeChambeau—the relationship was somewhat mended during his time at the Saudi-funded LIV golf league.

This seems a long time ago, and they both have a major on their minds. Dechambeau made 71 saves and was two behind. Koepka shot a 66 and was behind by three.

Conners only dropped one shot on the savage shutting stretch on the back nine and scored a 68. Hovland only had one bogey in his 67th round.

They were at 5 under 135, with more variety on the horizon. Rain was forecast for Saturday and windy on Sunday and 18 players were separated by five shots.

There have been some late charges to move into contention (Koepka with 31 in the back nine), to keep hopes alive (Rory McIlroy with 69) or just to make the cut (Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas).

At the moment, Scheffler is on target as a Masters champion a year ago and as a player who has finished no worse than 12th all year.

Hovland, who shared his 54-hole lead at St Andrews last summer, is also used to this. He only dropped one shot early in his 67th round, shutting it down with an iron 7 from a wet, thick rough to 5 feet for birdie. It was his 10th consecutive major league outing when he finished the day in the top 10 of the leaderboard.

Conners made 68, at one point building a two-shot lead until he had to rely on his short game to account for some errant drives and hard holes in the front nine.

They were two shots clear of Dechambeau and Justin Suh (68).

The leading seven players came from the same side of the draw. They were two hours late from freezing temperatures and a layer of frost on the grass. They dodged the winds on Friday morning, then a passing rain knocked some of the fire out of Oak Hill.

“The rain…just fortunately we didn’t have any wind, so that kind of helped us out,” Hovland said. “With that rain, the ball got a little short. And if you’re in a rough place, it tends to make that rough a bit more appealing. At the end of the day, it makes the green a little softer, and maybe you can be a hair more aggressive.”

There have been some impressive transitions, to be sure.

Shane Lowry had six birdies in the eight-hole stretch on a rainy afternoon until her close with a pair of bogeys. He had to settle for 67, leaving him at an evenly large 140 group, five shots behind but still in the thick of it.

That group included the pro Michael Block (70), and included Rory McIlroy, who felt as if he had hit the ball badly – and seemed to do so in one flight with one pick word – and was a little surprised when looking at the leaderboard he found himself in range.

“I think how terrible I’ve felt about the golf ball the last couple of days, the fact that I’ve only come back five… I think that’s a good thing, because I know if I can get it in the tee, that’s the key to my success over the weekend,” he said. McIlroy said.

Some players were simply happy to still be around for the weekend.

Ram, the Masters champion and world number one player, opened with a score of 76 and couldn’t get a shot. He was running out of holes, one shot over the wound 5, when he ran off three consecutive birdies and saved 68 to make the cut with one shot to spare.

Spieth pulled off the tee in the drivable 14th as he could get a good look at the birdie. Then he found an embarrassing lie in a forward bunker as his shot had sailed over the green, over the boundary fence and landed somewhere on the grounds of the Irondequoit Country Club. He somehow saved a bogey and gave clutch putts—no more than 10 feet in the rain to get a par on the last hole—to make a cut on the number.

And now the focus shifts to the top, a mix of major champions and players making their PGA Championship debut, a PGA Tour rookie and a club pro. Each of them was five bullets away.

DeChambeau had a rocky start, particularly on the par-4 6th hole, so rough that she yielded only three birdies out of 156 putts and had an average score of 4.75. He was in a greenside bunker, took two shots out and made a double bogey.

He didn’t make his first birdie until the par-3 11th hole — DeChambeau hit a 6-iron from 248 yards to 6 feet — and had two more birdies before finishing bogey.

Then head to the range as it gets dark.

I know what to do. I’ve done it before. It’s been a few years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to do it. And if it’s not my time, It’s not my time. I definitely feel like I’m finally heading in the right direction.”