Cromwell, Connecticut — Scotty Schaeffler offered hope with his late double bogey. Tommy Fleetwood charged with two eagles on three holes, and Justin Thomas also had five straight birdies. They were tied to Friday’s ferocious lead at the Travelers Championship.
All it took was the destiny of the wind, good or bad, to shape the leaderboards that enter the weekend at TPC River Highlands.
Schaeffler sent the ball to the fairway bunker on the par 4 on the 17th, when his tee shot was running slowly, comfortable in front of the left-to-right wind. He put the next one in the water and barely reached the green on the fourth shot, making a double bogey. He got caught up in a 1-under 69.
Fleetwood felt the wind go right to the right, then slightly hurt, helping the par-5 13th day slightly. He covered at least 240 yards to cover the water, 264 yards in the hole, and he felt his 9 wood would reach at least green.
It relied heavily on the whimsical winds that had so many players cheated.
“I just caught the right moment,” Fleetwood said.
Thomas was hoping he could hit the ball a little from the tee, but he escaped trouble and was patient and won cash to the back nine with two straight birdies from 25 feet range, leading to 64.
They were 9 under 131, one shot ahead of Jason Day (66).
Rory McIlroy fell to eight shots behind Scheffler, a difficult outlook, at one point, at 3, at 3, at four holes in a gust of wind above 30 mph. However, he got into the game and found hope when Schaeffler returned to nine under and gained a bit of luck on his own.
His second shot from the bunker on the 17th made me think he had taken one hand out of the club, waiting mostly for a splash to be even worse. It established water on orbits that were so low that it skipped to the fairway.
He failed to take a bogey and go up and down, but he thought that might have gotten worse – Shot and his position will go on the weekend. He hit with 71, but he left just four behind.
“Today’s conditions are definitely going to be a very exciting weekend that will bring together the entire field,” McIlroy said.
The conditions were all about the second round, mainly strong winds that had blown hats off the head and tipped unavailable chairs.
His average score is 70.7, which is nearly two shots than in the opening round. It was the highest scoring average in a single round with travelers since the second round of 2017.
The toughest part for players was knowing how it was playing. Schaeffler experienced it on the 17th.
“Te shot, I hit exactly the way I wanted,” Schaeffler said. “For some reason, the wind would either stop or go back, because the way my balls were flying was basically in the middle of the fairway and it became a left bunker.
“Then I caught it in the fat in my hair and suddenly I dropped my fourth shot and hit it. And then I hit the shot the way we wanted. And then you suddenly suddenly have a sudden, suddenly the ball isn’t turning green,” he said. “We can’t get everyone right. We’ll do our best to manage the surroundings of the golf course.”
Day had his own version of hat-trick on the front nine – 3 pars, 3 birdies, 3 bogeys – until he hits all the right shots of 31 on his back to get into the hunt.
Denny McCarthy (64) and Austin Eckrote (71) were 7 under 133, followed by Ryder Cup Captain Keegan Bradley (70) and Nick Taylor (68).
Patrick Cantray has 68 with double bogeys in par 5 13th place and joined the large group with 135, including McIlroy.
If the winds were bad enough, Luke Clanton showed incredible patience in his second professional tournament. He was playing with Jordan Spieth, but he had to feel pain in the upper back Thursday. Clanton was a single in the middle of the field, behind Schaeffler and US Open Champion JJ Span, in front of Andrew Novak and Jacob Bridgeman.
He was waiting for all the shots and posted a 72 well, leaving him in the middle of the pack.