Scotty Schaeffler has earned a one-shot lead at the weather-affected Houston Open, comparable to the Memorial Park course record set in 2021.
For Schaeffler, who missed the first month of the season, this was the most complete round.
Schaeffler opened the round with two birdies, the second where he drilled a hole from within 30 feet after only green of his 8-under 62.
“I felt like I had made some important par saves yesterday. Today, I had the golf course right in front of me most of the time and had a lot of birdie look,” Schaeffler said.
“I didn’t feel like I was struggling with too many things, mainly because I was on the fairway.”
Image: Schaeffler watches his tee shot in the first hole
It was the eighth time Schaeffler shot below 62. One of them was 59 in the FedEx Cup playoffs at TPC Boston in 2020, the first since shooting 62 in the final round at Le Golf National to win the Olympic Gold Medal in the 2024 Paris Games.
He led Canada’s Taylor Pendris on one shot, but Jackson Suber finished the first round with a four-putt double bogey, but was three people behind.
The weather will wreak havoc in the McIlroy Round
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Rory McIlroy played in the afternoon and began 11 shots behind Scheffler. He carded a back-to-back birdie and bogeyed the seventh hole before play was interrupted due to lightning.
“That was very different to what we thought,” Schaeffler said. “Today it looked like we were checking out this morning’s forecast — it’s going to be one of those times when we’re going to see some delays there and we’re going to play on and off.”
Instead, he rode the 10th hole from the start with a 10-foot birdie putt and 11th with a 25-footer. Schaeffler played bogey-free in his second straight round.
Schaeffler felt that his ironplay wasn’t as sharp as he wanted, but he knew that the green felt good and that he didn’t have to attack the pin if he didn’t need it.
It led to a stress-free round featuring eight birdies, leaving Scheffler at pole position, who lived in Sky Sports on the weekend of his final start before the Masters.
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