Schauffele in front; Woods falls back
NEWTOWN SQUARE, PA.» Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk had an easy time deciding on three of his four picks for the Ryder Cup.
Xander Schauffele is making the last one a little more difficult.
Schauffele nearly holed a wedge on his second hole, rolled in a 40foot birdie putt in the middle of his round Friday and wound up with a 6under 64 in the BMW Championship for the lowest 36hole score of his career and a twoshot lead over Justin Rose.
“I’m sort of in a position where I feel like a win is the only way I’d even be in consideration,” Schauffele said.
He also made it more difficult on Woods, who again goes into a weekend have to catch up to the leaders.
One day after he opened with a 62 — his lowest score since his last victory more than five years ago — Woods went eight holes before his first birdie and didn’t make many after that. He finished with two straight bogeys for a 70 that left him five shots behind in a tie for 12th.
“Very simple. I didn’t make any putts,” Woods said. “I hit a lot of beautiful putts that were on the top of the edge, and then obviously hit a couple bad ones on the last hole, but looked like all the putts were going to in. But they didn’t go in today.”
Schauffele was at 13under 127 and will be paired in the third round Saturday with a familiar figure in Philadelphia. Rose, who played bogeyfree for a 64, won the AT&T National at Aronimink in 2010, and he captured his only major at nearby Merion in the 2013 U.S. Open.