Schauffele emerges with lead as weather gets nasty in Hawaii

KAPALUA, Hawaii The only thing that resembled paradise to Xander Schauffele at Kapalua was his name atop the leaderboard Friday at the Sentry Tournament of Champions.

Through bursts of rain and gusts that topped 30 mph, Schauffele managed to go bogey-free for the second straight day with a 5-under 68 that gave him a one-shot lead over Patrick

Reed and Joaquin Niemann.

Schauffele is trying to become the first repeat champion of this winnersonly event in 10 years.

On this day, he was trying to keep it together.

Schauffele finished with a birdie, a two-putt par from just under 100 feet, and a 7-foot birdie on the final hole. That gave him the lead at 9-under 137, the highest 36-hole score to lead at Kapalua since 2008.

“A day of adjustment is sort of how I like to look at it, and glad we were able to come out on top,” Schauffele said.

Reed made three straight birdies around the turn, lost two good scoring chances late, made up for that with a 30-foot birdie on the 17th and wound up with a 66 for the best score of the day. Niemann didn’t make a birdie until the ninth hole and limited the damage enough for a 72.

Rickie Fowler (71) was two shots behind.

Schauffele won last year with a 62 in the final round, a score that now seems out of reach on a Plantation course with entirely new grass on fairways that remain soft because of rain. The greens have shelves that weren’t there a year ago. And the weather was never this rough when he won.

Shots that typically bounce and roll out some 30 yards were rolling a few feet, if not hopping back from their pitch marks.

The temperature felt tropical. Otherwise, this was a test.