Robert MacIntyre opens huge lead at BMW Championship as Scottie Scheffler chases

USA Today

2 days ago

OWINGS MILLS, Md. – After the opening round of the BMW Championship, Tommy Fleetwood expressed his surprise that anyone had shot a bogey-free round at Caves Valley Golf Club. He knew he had done and wondered if Robert MacIntyre, who had made 10 birdies on Thursday and shot 62 to grab the opening-round lead was the other. When told that it was Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, Fleetwood deadpanned, 'Bob wasn't even bogey-free? Pathetic.'
Nothing pathetic about MacIntyre's play on Friday as he shot a bogey-free 6-under 64 to post a 36-hole total of 14-under 126. MacIntyre built a five-stroke lead over Scottie Scheffler at the halfway point of the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
'Yesterday the putter was on fire. Today I felt like my iron play was exceptional,' he said. 'But I've been putting in the work the last couple of weeks to make it -- to improve on what I was doing since the Wyndham. Obviously coming from links golf back out to throwing darts is a bit different technique-wise, turf-wise, so it took a little bit of readjusting, but I've got the hang of it.'
MacIntyre didn't threaten 200 feet of putts made as he did in the first round but settled for 91 feet while converting his share of birdies, including a 29-footer at 14.
'I've always said when I'm comfortable with a putter in my hands, it's a dangerous thing,' he said. 'Since the PGA, it's been feeling great in the hands.'
MacIntyre leads the field in both Strokes Gained: Putting and SG: Approach the Green, a pretty deadly combination.
"I feel like this week I've really done a good job of getting it underneath the hole to be able to be aggressive with an uphill putt," he said. "The hardest putts are the ones probably five, six, seven, eight feet down the hill where you're just breathing on it, touching it to get it going and you just stand there and watch it bob and weave its way down the hill and fearing where it's going to end. But yeah, I don't mind quick greens.'
Neither does Scheffler, who shot a bogey-free 5-under 65, and ranks first in SG: Off the Tee.
'I would have liked to have gotten a couple better looks down the stretch, but didn't hit as many fairways the last few holes, and out here with the way the holes are shaped, you've got to be in play, and did a good job of saving pars when I needed to on the back,' he said.
Scheffler is bidding for his fifth win of the season, which would make him the first to win five or more tournaments in back-to-back seasons since Tiger Woods. Over the last 40 years, Tiger is the only player to achieve that feat – and he did it six times!
Alone in third is Ludvig Aberg, who hasn't finished better than T-8 since the Masters. He carded five birdies on the back nine and tied the low round of the day with 64 to improve to 8-under 132.
'It's a tough course. You've got to drive it well. You've got to hit fairways. The fairway bunkers are quite penalizing with the big lips. So far I've been keeping myself out of those, which has been nice,' Aberg said. 'I think overall the greens are rolling nice, quite breaky putts, quite tricky and fast going down the hills, and you've got to leave yourself in the right spots, which is the way it's supposed to be. I'm looking forward to two more good days.'
Hideki Matsuyama played alongside MacIntyre and matched him stroke for stroke, posting 64 and is alone in fourth at 7-under 133.
Fleetwood, who suffered another heartbreaking Sunday last week in Memphis in his search for his first PGA Tour win, is in the mix again after a 69 and is T-5 at 6-under 134.