FORT WORTH, Texas — The Texas winds are coming. Scottie Scheffler knows it. And the best way to prepare for stress is by taking it easy for a bit.
So the fact that Scheffler — who has never sparkled at Colonial Country Club, even though it’s a PGA Tour home game for him — could exhale a little on Friday at the Charles Schwab Challenge and still put himself at the top of another leaderboard is something to behold.
Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player, was smooth as silk in posting a 65 in the second round and now owns a portion of the 36-hole lead with fellow University of Texas product Beau Hossler and Scott Stallings. All three are at 9 under.
With a windy forecast for the weekend, Scheffler said he was happy to ease his way through Colonial on Friday, and has yet to make bogey in the tournament.
“Yeah, I love that stat. It’s a lot of fun,” he said of the mark. “I kept the stress off myself for the most part. My lag putting was really good, and really the only long par putt I made was on No. 7, and outside of that, I really didn’t put much stress on myself, which is good. A four-day event having a day where I can take the stress off, especially when the conditions are going to be so hard the next two days is important.”
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Although he failed to make the cut at the PGA Championship last week at Tulsa’s Southern Hills, Scheffler is still playing with a different level of bravado than he’s previously brought to Colonial. He missed the cut last year and failed to get into the top 50 in his 2019 debut.
But with some fine-tuning in his iron and wedge game and a different sense of purpose, Scheffler is not only eager to show he can place at this event, he thinks the difficult conditions will help his cause.
“I think it’s going to be challenging. The greens, actually for Colonial having bentgrass, they’re pretty firm for the summertime here, and with the way the winds are going to blow, it’s going to be a very challenging day,” Scheffler said. “These fairways aren’t wide, and when it starts blowing like that, it can create some big gusts and awkward angles around this place, so it’s going to be a challenging weekend for sure.”
