Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre will take a five-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler into the weekend at the BMW Championship after firing a bogey-free 64 on Friday in Owings Mills, Md.
MacIntyre’s 6-under-par round followed a sterling 62 to open the second leg of the FedEx Cup playoffs at Caves Valley Golf Club. Now at 14-under 126, MacIntyre is halfway home to his third PGA Tour victory after capturing the Canadian and Scottish Opens last year.
He said he doesn’t recall having a lead through 36 holes as large as this one.
“Not as a professional, I don’t think. But I’ve had it before as an amateur,” MacIntyre said. “Yeah, again, it’s only 36 holes gone. There’s a long way to go. I’m comfortable with who I am. I’m comfortable with the team around me, and I’m comfortable on this golf course. Just go and play golf.”
Scheffler made five birdies and no bogeys in his round of 65, capped with a difficult two-putt par from 73 feet on the last hole.
“A lot of slope,” Scheffler said of the situation. “It was one of those putts, the higher up I got it towards the fringe, the more it was going to break, so I didn’t know if I was going to need to chip it to get it close or not and decided to kind (of) accept maybe a longer putt for par, and did a really good job of getting a nice lag in there close to the hole.”
Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (8 under) and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama (7 under) are third and fourth, respectively, after they each shot 64 Friday.
Maverick McNealy joined the 64 brigade and moved to 6 under for the tournament, tied with Michael Kim (66) and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (69) for fifth.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy improved by four shots from Round 1 to 2, his 66 lifting him to 4 under par.
They’re all looking way, way up at MacIntyre, who turned in a card with three birdies on each nine. While his Thursday round was marked by a multitude of long putts, he only had two of those on Friday: a 17 1/2-foot birdie at No. 4 and a sweeping 29-footer at No. 14.
Instead, MacIntyre relied on his approaches to take him a long way. He led the field in strokes gained: approach the green and hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation.
“It’s just about picking smart shots, smart targets and then just dealing with what comes,” MacIntyre said.
Aberg, who birdied three of his last five holes Friday, is trying to get back on track after he followed a win at the Genesis Invitational in February with a bumpy summer.
“I’ve kind of gotten away from some bad, poor habits in my swing that I did sort of early spring, early summer which I didn’t really like,” Aberg said. “Definitely gotten better at that and definitely swinging it better now than I did a couple of months ago, so I’m pleased to see that coming around a little bit. It’s a nice time for it.”
Only the top 30 players in the FedEx Cup standings at the end of this tournament will advance to next week’s Tour Championship. Once they’re there, everyone will start at even par, as the tour eliminated the controversial “starting strokes” format.
Kim entered the week 42nd in points and is projected to jump to No. 26 in his current position. England’s Harry Hall, currently 45th, is projected to snag the 30th and final spot; he’s tied for eighth at 5 under after a 67 Friday.
“I like to look at the numbers,” Hall said, “and I know if I can just average gaining 1.2 strokes a round, then it equates to playing really good golf and getting really far in the FedEx Cup.”
McIlroy doesn’t have to worry about making the cut for next week. He’s No. 2 behind Scheffler and played with the World No. 1 in the first two rounds this week.
McIlroy overcame an early double bogey with three straight birdies at Nos. 9-11 and an excellent eagle at the par-5 16th, where his second shot settled inside 8 feet of the pin.
“I think I’m just playing my own tournament at this point,” McIlroy said. “… I just want to try to play a good weekend and feel a little bit better about my game going into the Tour Championship.”
–Field Level Media
