67 strokes leaves him the sole leader with eight under par
Life can change you in just 54 days. On February 10, Scottie Scheffler He was just another good player on the PGA Tour looking for his first win; and tonight sleep like leader of the Augusta Masters. And it is that in this month and 24 days, Scheffler won his first PGA Tour tournament in Phoenix, a few days later he climbed the rank of the feat winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational, also from PGA Tour but with an invitational label, and culminated the climb by conquering the Dell Technologies Match Play, an event belonging to the World Championships.
The consequences of the trident of triumphs was his coronation as number one in World golf, but not content with it, the Texan intends to achieve this weekend the definitive upgrade of his career; the Augusta Masters.
And on Friday he took a giant step signing the best lap of the day, 67 shots that leave him as the sole leader with eight under par, five ahead of the second position that they share with -3 four non-American players: the South African Charl Schwartzel, the Korean Sungjae Im, the Irish Shaane Lowry and the defending champion, the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama. Scheffler took advantage of the last hour of the day with much less wind to fabricate this historic opportunity.
Complicated day
And it is that for much of the entire day, the gusty wind caused many complications, leaving only 15 players below par on the field. The average number of blows of the day was very close to 75, and disasters such as the 82 blows of Garrick Higgo, the 81 of Matthew Wolf, the 79 of Abraham Ancer, or the 77 of Xander Schauffele already marked a gloomy trend.
The cold caused windbreakers to supersede umbrellas as the star garment in merchandising stalls. The gusts were so strong that they came to stir up the sand in the bunkers. It was the toughest conditions of the whole week and in the middle of the storm, Rahm y Garca They were fighting to avoid a shipwreck. They made it, both arrive at the weekend with +2, Sergio signing a 74, finishing with two birdies after recovering from a triple bogey on the 11th hole. While Rahm saved the par of the course, with the bad feeling of a final bogey .
Jos Mara Olazbal aware of his limitations, he said goodbye with 84 hits; discomfort in his arm and a field that no longer belongs to him. No one is going to take away the honor of keeping the green jacket in the champions locker room and attending the Tuesday dinner every year. The results of Rahm and Garca were good enough in the middle of the afternoon to keep a glimmer of hope for the weekend, until Sheffler came with his show distancing the Hispanic illusions up to 10 hits of heroic comeback.
Someone should have warned the Texan that this is the Masters of Tiger. Woods survived another day with a +2 lap, a +1 overall result, which gives him a place in the top 20, although at this hour, we assume him surrounded by physios and ice looking at Scheffler seven strokes away.
Woods’ beginning, with four bogeys in the first five holes it was even painful to watch, but the legend reinvented himself again to save the situation and aspire to put a big icing on his impossible comeback.
According to the criteria of
Know more
