Justin Thomas and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood joined Scottie Scheffler atop the Travelers Championship leaderboard on Friday in Cromwell, Conn.
Thomas rolled in five birdies in a row and Fleetwood pocketed a pair of eagles on the back nine at TPC River Highlands to rocket up the leaderboard. Thomas posted a 6-under-par 64, tied for the low round of the day, and Fleetwood shot a 65 to reach 9-under 131 for the tournament.
Scheffler, the defending champion who held a share of the lead after opening with a 62, managed a 69 that included a water ball and a double bogey at No. 17.
The trio was one stroke ahead of Australian Jason Day, who posted his second straight round of 66 to get to 8 under. Austin Eckroat, who was tied with Scheffler through 18 holes, struggled to a 71 Friday to land tied for fifth with Denny McCarthy (64).
Thomas was 1 under through his round and coming off a bogey at No. 10 when he caught fire. A 15 1/2-foot birdie at the par-3 11th hole got him going, and he capped the run with a pair of even longer putts: 26 feet at No. 14 and 27 feet at No. 15.
“I didn’t feel like I drove it very well,” Thomas said. “I kept it in play and kept it in front of me, which is a big part of it, but I just kind of kept it out of trouble. I would much prefer to be hitting the middle of the club face and doing that, but it’s still a good sign on a really windy day like this.”
Fleetwood’s eagles came at the par-5 13th and par-4 15th holes. After reaching the green in two and making a 10-footer at the 13th, he pitched in from in front of the green at No. 15 — which was playing just 299 yards — and holed out from 90 feet.
“(At) 15, the tee shot there was unbelievable looking at it, and it pitched right into that upslope, and I was a bit gutted where it pitched and then chipped it in,” Fleetwood said. “Would have been happy walking off — obviously walking off with two birdies, but two eagles was a big bonus.”
Scheffler and the rest of the field battled unusual wind gusts that threw them off.
“I would use ‘robotic’ as maybe the word. It’s not as robotic,” the World No. 1 said. “I think when you’re playing under no conditions or very light winds, I think you can hit a similar flight on every single shot and it would be fine. On days like today you have to work the ball both ways. You have to hit low shots, hit high shots. You’re always playing a different type of shot, especially in conditions like this.”
He was in agreement with Day, who had a busy day with seven birdies and three bogeys.
“You wake up, and I knew I had an afternoon tee time, and I’m sitting in my bus and the bus is moving,” Day said. “I’m like, ‘That’s pretty strong wind to move the bus.’
“Then you get out here and I decide to check the weather, and it was 15 to 20 miles an hour but gusts of 40. That’s usually one where you’re like — you’re looking forward to it, but you also know it’s going to be a grind through the day.”
U.S. Ryder Cup captain and 2023 Travelers winner Keegan Bradley posted an even-par 70 and is tied at 6 under with Canada’s Nick Taylor (68). Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy had five bogeys against four birdies for a 1-over 71, dropping to 5 under with Eric Cole (67), Patrick Cantlay (68) and Harris English (68).
The $20 million signature event does not include a 36-hole cut. Ireland’s Shane Lowry (73 on Friday; 5 over for the tournament), Rickie Fowler (77; 7 over) and Tony Finau (74; 7 over) all continued to struggle with their respective games.
–Field Level Media
