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Schauffele has five shot lead after two rounds at Travelers

Consistency helped golfer Xander Schauffele grab the lead at the midway point of the Travelers Championship Friday at TPC-River Highland in Cromwell.

For the second straight day, he shot a 7-under-par 63 and leads the tournament by five strokes after two rounds. Schauffele’s two-round total of 126 matches the tournament record for low opening score after 36 holes first set by Justin Rose in 2010.

“I think anytime you can hit a lot of greens at any tournament, it definitely makes it a little bit easier on yourself,” Schauffele said. “I feel like (caddy) Austin (Kaiser) and I have just been a little bit more diligent and a little more deliberate with our task when we’re over the golf ball and picking numbers and picking sort of the right shot. So, I think I’m very focused on that and not much else.

Five golfers are tied for second place with a 131 including Kevin Kisner (64 in the second round), Cam Davis (66), defending champion Harris English (65), Patrick Cantlay (67) and Nick Hardy (64). Harris is hoping for a repeat of last year and become the tournament’s second back-to-back champion; Phil Mickelson won in 2001 and 2002.

Rory McIlroy raced out to a lead midway through the second round, reaching 13-under-par with six birdies over his first 11 holes. McIlroy shot a back-nine 39 to fall back to 8-under, in a tie for seventh.

“We’ve got 36 more holes, and I need to stay aggressive. This is a course that’s giving up some birdies, and if you’re leading the pack and you get kind of comfortable, people are going to hunt you down,” Schauffele said.

Michael Thorbjornsen, the rising junior from Stanford and Wellesley, Mass., shot a second-round 65 to easily make the cut. The former U.S. Junior champion also played in last week’s U.S. Open in Boston where he missed the cut. He received a sponsor exemption to play at the Travelers.

He found Cromwell to be friendly and supportive.

“Out there the crowds were unbelievable,” he said. “Almost everyone was shouting out my name. I still understand that this is a PGA Tour event, this is a very big deal, but with less people I feel like there is almost less pressure out here. I can swing freely. The golf course (in Cromwell) is a little easier than the Open.”

Notables

  • Coming off a tie for 14th place at last week’s U.S. Open, Xander Schauffele makes big strides towards his sixth career PGA Tour title and first individual stroke-play victory since the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions
  • Patrick Cantlay, who partnered with Schauffele to win this season’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, closes in on a seventh top-five finish of the season
  • Harris English aims to become the second player to successfully defend a Travelers Championship title (Phil Mickelson/2002) and fifth player to successfully defend a title in the 2021-22 season
  • After making his professional debut at the 2018 Travelers Championship (T61), Nick Hardy seeks first career PGA Tour title in his 28th start
  • Rory McIlroy takes a quadruple bogey (par-4 12th) for the sixth time in his PGA Tour career and first since the 2021 Player’s Championship
  • In search of a fifth TOUR victory this season, FedExCup leader and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler enters the weekend nine strokes back
  • Six second-round leaders or co-leaders at Travelers Championship have won the tournament since 2000 — Jordan Spieth/2017, Bubba Watson/2015, Kenny Perry/2009, Hunter Mahan/2007, Peter Jacobsen/2003, Notah Begay III/2000

Travelers Championship leaderboard

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