Schauffele ties record with 63, leads by 1

KAWAGOE, Japan — Xander Schauffele has been pointing to the Olympics ever since he began his rise into the elite of American golf three years ago.

Now that he’s here, in the country where his mother was raised and enjoying an Olympic experience his father could only dream about, he is trying to treat this like any other week.

His play Friday indicated otherwise. Already with two eagles on his card, Schauffele surged into the 36-hole lead at Kasumigaseki Country Club by finishing with three straight birdies to tie the Olympic record with an 8-under 63.

He had a one-shot lead over Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, who is sharing a suite with a boxer and delivered a few good punches himself in a round of 67.

“I just got in a nice flow there at the end,” Schauffele said. “Kind of one of those situations where I wish I could play some more holes.”

There was no chance of that, for him or anyone else. For the second straight day, thunder storms caused a delay of more than two hours, and anotherbatch of lightning and heavy rain ended play with 16 playersstill on the course.

That included Hideki Matsuyama, the Masters champion and Japanese star who holed a 5-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole Saturday morning and saved par from just off the 18th green to complete a 7under64.

That left him two shots behind Schauffele.

“My feeling is not that great, but I am coming into the weekend with a good condition,” Matsuyama said. “So I would like to do my best.”

Also right back in the mix was the Irish duo of Rory McIlroy(66) and Shane Lowry (65), who were four shots behindSchauffele.

“The goal today was to sort of get back in touch,” said McIlroy,who was six shots behind first-round leader Sepp Straka at the start of the day. “I just wanted to get into contention going into the weekend and at least feel like I was still a part of the tournament. AndI’ve done that.”