Another 63 puts Schauffele in the driver’s seat heading into weekend

Xander Schauffele landed a fairway shot just under 10 feet from hole 17 at TPC River Highlands Friday. He tapped in the putt on his next stroke, recording his seventh and final birdie. His second round at the Travelers Championship was nearly complete.

His 7-under par 63 was identical to his score Thursday, combining to tie Justin Rose’s 2010 tournament record of

126 through 36 holes. At 14-under-par, his lead is five strokes heading into the weekend, tying the tournament record for largest 36-hole lead. Schauffele shares that mark with Tommy Bolt and Gene Littler, who did it 1954 and 1959, respectively. Both went on to win the tournament,

That lead, however, wasn’t granted until world No. 2 Rory Mcilroy hit a speed bump. He started Friday with six birdies and a bogey through his first 11 holes. At 13-under he was pulling away from the pack. Fast.

Then he shanked his 12th tee shot to the right tree line out of bounds.

He took the penalty stoke and returned to the tee — this time sending the ball 234 yards into the primary rough. Eventually landing on the green after stops in a bunker and again in the rough, Mcilroy clinched his sixth career quadruple bogey eight which dropped him momentarily to 9-under.

Three holes later, on 15, Mcilroy quickly found himself encompassed by the crowd after another drive shanked right forced him to play off the hill. He landed another in the water two strokes later, eventually scrambling for a double-bogey six.

Carried by his strong front nine, Mcilroy still finished that day at evenpar and sits in a group of nine players tied for seventh at 8-under.

“We all said walking off 17, ‘How long have we were been out here?’ I’m exhausted,” Kevin Kisner, who was in Mcilroy’s group, said. “It was a long round. You wait that whole back nine, and just thankful on the weekend we’ll play twos and move along a lot faster.”

Harris English, the defending champion, caught fire in the second round alongside his groupmate Patrick Cantlay. The two battled side-by-side to a morning tie atop the leaderboard at 9-under par after two rounds.