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It was a tragic and surreal Friday morning just outside Valhalla Golf Club.
Inside the ropes, morning rains further softened an already-soaked set of putting greens, leading to another day of low scores.
With the second round suspended due to darkness, the cut line was under par — something that has never previously happened at the PGA Championship. Seventy-nine players are under par. In the four previous PGAs held in May combined, there were 74 players under par through the first two rounds.
Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Round 2 of the 106th PGA Championship.
1. At 12-under, Xander Schauffele tied the lowest 36-hole score to par in PGA Championship history. When Brooks Koepka did it in 2019 at Bethpage, he led the field by a whopping seven shots. Schauffele will enter Round 3 with just a one-stroke cushion. This marks the first time Schauffele has held the lead after back-to-back rounds in a major — he led by three after round one. Each of the last two major winners in the men’s game — Brian Harman at last year’s Open and Scottie Scheffler at the Masters — held the outright 36-hole lead.
Thursday was the 13th time Schauffele had started a major with a round in the 60s. This is the first instance of his backing one up with a second sub-70 score. Though Schauffele sprinted through holes 11 through 18 in five-under on Day 1, he was one-over on those holes in the second round.
2. Schauffele played his first 28 holes of the week without a bogey, his longest streak to begin a major championship. Nobody has played the first two rounds of a PGA Championship without a dropped shot since Hale Irwin in 1993 at Inverness. Schauffele has hit 30 of 36 greens in regulation this week, tied with Tony Finau for most of any player in the field. He leads the tournament in strokes gained tee-to-green and is a perfect 6-for-6 scrambling.
Though Schauffele was tremendous again Friday with 13 of his 14 clubs, his putting wasn’t nearly as strong on Day 2. Thursday, Schauffele gained more than four strokes on the greens at Valhalla. In the second round, he lost more than 1.2 strokes putting, needing seven more putts (31) than in Round 1 (24).
3. One shot behind Schauffele is Collin Morikawa, winner of the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park. Four players have won multiple PGAs in their first five career starts: Walter Hagen, Jim Barnes, Gene Sarazen and Tiger Woods. Morikawa is making his fifth PGA Championship appearance this week in Kentucky.
One of the best iron players in the game in recent years, Morikawa is contending in an unconventional manner, at least for him. Morikawa has gained more strokes on and around the greens (7.0) than with his drives and approach shots (4.4). Through 36 holes, he’s hit seven fewer greens than Schauffele, yet is only one stroke back.
Morikawa is looking for his third career major championship victory in just his 18th major start. The last player to reach three major wins in 18 starts or fewer was Tom Watson, who won his third major title in his 17th career start at the 1977 Open Championship. Jordan Spieth won the 2017 Open in his 19th major; Woods and Koepka won their third in their 20th attempt.
4. Sahith Theegala is alone in third, the first time in his young major championship career he will enter the weekend in the top five. Theegala is making just his ninth career major start — his best finish was a solo ninth in his Masters debut last year. Theegala was surgical with his approach play in Round 2, hitting 15 greens in regulation and ranking in the top five in the field in average proximity. From the fairway, Theegala averaged nearly 6 feet closer on approach shots (22 feet, 6 inches) than the field average (28 feet, 5 inches).
The driver has been one of Theegala’s strengths in 2024, as he ranks 22nd in strokes gained off the tee per round this season on the PGA Tour. He’s in this lofty position at Valhalla despite ranking outside the top 100 in the field in that statistic for the week.
5. Though the first several hours of Scheffler’s Friday were anything but normal, the golf portion of his day looked familiar. Scheffler carded just one bogey in a second-round 66 to share fourth place entering the weekend. Through two rounds, Scheffler is in the top 10 in the field in strokes gained off the tee, approach and around the green.
Scheffler is simply inevitable on the golf course at this point. In his last 26 official PGA Tour starts, he has been in the top ten entering the weekend 20 times. Scheffler has now shot par or better in all 41 of his rounds on tour in 2024. Scheffler is a combined 33-under-par in rounds 3 and 4 of majors since the beginning of 2020, six strokes better than any other player in that span.
Through two rounds, Bryson DeChambeau leads the field in driving distance. (David Cannon / Getty Images)
6. For just the second time in his major championship career, Bryson DeChambeau has started a week with back-to-back rounds in the 60s. The other time he did it was at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot, which he went on to win. DeChambeau’s 36-hole score of nine-under is three shots better than his previous career low through two rounds of a major — he was 6-under entering Round 3 of this year’s Masters.
The pre-tournament talk about the value of distance around Valhalla is proving to be very real. Each of the last two PGA winners at this venue — Woods in 2000 and Rory McIlroy in 2014 — led the tournament that week in driving distance. Through two rounds, DeChambeau leads the field in that statistic. Bryson has eight drives this week of 325 yards or more, twice as many as any other player.
7. Though Scheffler and DeChambeau are hardly unexpected near the top of the leaderboard, two names alongside them are. Mark Hubbard entered the week with a score to par of 33-over-par in 10 career major championship rounds. His scores of 67 and 66 this week are the first two times he’s shot under par in a major. Hubbard is lined up for a tee time with the world No. 1 on Saturday afternoon.
A former top-five-ranked amateur in the world, Thomas Detry is having his most successful start to a major. Before this week, Detry had never been better than tied for 18th after two rounds at a major. He’s 14 spots better than that through 36 at Valhalla. Detry’s lone bogey of the championship came on the fifth hole Thursday. He’s picked up at least a stroke both around and on the greens each day so far this week.
8. Koepka is five shots back, well within range to acquire major title No. 6 this weekend. Koepka was five behind the lead after two rounds in his victory at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock. Were it not for a few poor putts, Koepka would be an even more daunting presence on the leaderboard: In Friday’s round, he missed all four of his putts from 3 to 6 feet away.
Koepka is very much in this championship despite not having the best statistical performance so far. In addition to the missed putts, Koepka lost strokes to the field with his approach play Friday, largely thanks to a ball blasted out of bounds on the 10th hole. Just four players since World War II have won their sixth professional major before age 35: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Woods. Koepka would join them with a victory this weekend.
9. A pair of triple bogeys on his first four holes quickly derailed Woods’ hopes of making the cut for the second consecutive major. Friday was the 339th round of Woods’ major championship career. It’s the first time he’s ever carded two triple bogeys or worse in the same round. Woods fought until the end — he played the last 14 holes of the day in 1-under, finishing with a birdie at the last.
Phil Mickelson will also miss the weekend after scores of 74 and 72. Mickelson was gunning for his 28th career made cut at the PGA Championship, which would have broken a tie for most all time with Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd. Thursday was Mickelson’s 116th career round in this championship, tied for third most in PGA history.
10. Over the last 30 years, 91 percent of men’s major championship winners have been in the top 10 through 36 holes. That goes for 31 of the last 34 winners at the PGA Championship. The largest 36-hole comeback to win the PGA is nine shots, by Bob Rosburg in 1959 and Bob Tway in 1986.
Of the three previous PGAs held at Valhalla, two were won by the 36-hole leader: Woods in 2000 and McIlroy in 2014. Mark Brooks was four back at the halfway point in 1996 when he went on to victory.
(Top photo of Collin Morikawa: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
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Courtesy : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5502296/2024/05/17/pga-championship-collin-morikawa-xander-schauffele/