ATLANTA — Xander Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler have played a lot of golf together in 2024, so much so that they have joked about how they don’t have much to say to each other anymore.
And yet, Schauffele has plenty to talk about after Thursday’s round. He had a front-row seat for Scheffler’s masterful 6-under 65, the lowest round of the day at the Tour Championship that has given the World No. 1 a record lead.
“Scottie was almost in every fairway it looked like,” Schauffele said cheekily.
“It looked like he was going through wedge practice while he was out there. If you’re in the fairway, you can attack this golf course.”
Indeed, Scheffler missed only four fairways on Thursday, giving himself plenty of opportunities. After bogeying the first hole, where he missed the fairway way right, Scheffler played East Lake in 7-under par. He made seven birdies and 10 pars and now holds a commanding seven-shot lead over Schauffele and Collin Morikawa.
Schauffele, meanwhile, tied Scheffler right out of the gate. He birdied the opening hole, jumping up to 9-under and into a share of the lead. Scheffler began the Tour Championship at 10-under via the starting strokes format, while Schauffele teed off at 8-under.
But much unlike Scheffler, Schauffele cooled off the rest of the way. He made only two birdies, on the par-5 6th and par-5 14th, and then countered those with two dropped shots on the par-3 11th and par-4 16th.
“Started off hitting it okay,” Schauffele said of his 1-under 70.
“Yeah, I probably just reverted a little bit, unfortunately. I’m going to go hit some balls right now with the setting sun here, but I’ll figure it out.”
Schauffele only found seven fairways, yet he did manage to hit 13 greens.
“I hit it in the rough a lot, and with brand new greens, I think I scored okay for how bad I hit it,” Schauffele added.
“But yeah, overall, it was kind of a meh day. Wasn’t something for proud of or disgusted by.”
He still has three days to overcome a seven-shot deficit, but it won’t be easy. That said, Schauffele has a terrific record at East Lake, so anything is possible.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
