Fleetwood, Thomas and Scheffler share PGA Travelers lead
Thomas reeled off five consecutive birdies in firing a six-under par 64 while Fleetwood shot 65 and Scheffler fired a 69 to all stand on nine-under 131 for 36 holes at windy TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Paris Olympic runner-up Fleetwood, ranked 17th, matched his season-low round. He has seven European Tour wins but seeks his first PGA Tour victory.
Fleetwood eagled the par-five 13th after reaching the green in two and sinking a putt from just inside 10 feet, then chipped in at the par-four 14th for eagle from the fairway from just inside 90 feet.
"Would have been happy walking off with two birdies," Fleetwood said. "But two eagles was a big bonus."
A 12-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th gave him a share of the lead.
"It happened really quick. You don't expect two eagles in three holes," he said. "You don't really look for those things to happen.
"I played really well. Felt like I did a great job of scrapping on the front nine then played well on the back nine."
Fifth-ranked Thomas, a two-time major winner, opened the back nine with a bogey then birdied the next five holes.
The last two in the run, at the 14th and 15th, were from just beyond 26 feet each.
"I was very patient. I hit a lot of really good iron shots. I felt like I was in good control," Thomas said.
"I didn't feel like I drove it very well. I kept it in play and kept it in front of me, which is a big part of it, but I just kept it out of trouble. Finally made some putts on that back nine. It was nice."
Scheffler, who won his third major title at last month's PGA Championship, stumbled back with a double bogey at 17, plunking his second shot into the water.
"I played really nice," Scheffler said. "Had a weird lie on the second shot and kind of chunked it. After that I hit each shot the way I wanted, just didn't get the results from it.
"Outside of that, I felt like I played pretty well. It was very challenging out there with the wind gusts."
Scheffler made a bogey at the par-five sixth after missing the green with his approach but responded with birdies at the seventh on a putt from just inside seven feet and the ninth from just inside 10 feet.
At the par-five 13th, Scheffler reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie from 24 feet to grab the solo lead, then sank a birdie putt from just inside 17 feet.
Day just one shot back
Australian Jason Day, the 2015 PGA Championship winner, made three birdies in a row on holes 12-14 -- all on putts between four and eight feet -- and closed with a 21-foot birdie putt to shoot 66 and take fourth on 132.
"There's 40-mph gusts out there," Day said. "You had to hit on the right wind."
Americans Denny McCarthy and Austin Eckroat shared fifth on 133.
World number two Rory McIlroy made bogeys on three of the first four holes then made birdies on three of the first six on the back nine as he battled to a 71 to stand on 135.
"I hit some good shots and held it together when it could have got away from me early in the round," McIlroy said. "I felt like I battled back pretty well.
"To get it back somewhat close to even par for the day was good. The conditions definitely bunched the entire field together and should make for an exciting weekend."
© 2025 AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
an hour ago
- France 24
As sports embrace gender tests, Coventry and IOC may follow
Such testing has its critics and the Olympics have already tried it once only to abandon it in 1996. Incoming president Kirsty Coventry, who will become the first woman to lead the Olympic movement when she starts her term on Monday, signalled a change of direction on this politically inflammatory and scientifically complex issue when she was elected in March. "We will protect the female category and female athletes," said Coventry, a Zimbabwean swimmer who won seven Olympic medals. At recent Games, the IOC has left responsibility for setting and enforcing gender rules to the international federations who run their sports. "I want the IOC to take a little bit more of a leading role," Coventry said, adding that she planned to create "a task force." Even before Coventry begins her consultations, World Athletics and World Boxing have adopted chromosomal testing -- generally a cheek swab. World Aquatics in 2023 adopted a policy that foresees such testing. Their rules make participation in women's competition conditional on the absence of Y chromosome genetic material -- known as the SRY gene, an indicator of masculinity. 'Non-invasive' Only "XX athletes", as World Athletics calls them, can compete. Both transgender women and those who have always been considered female but have XY chromosomes -- a form of "differences in sex development" (DSD) -- are excluded. On the surface, chromosomal screening simplifies access to women's competition, which has long been the subject of varied regulations and scientific and ethical debates. Last October, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, told the UN General Assembly that such tests were "reliable and non-invasive." The gender debate reignited in June around Paris Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif. The Algerian was at the centre of a violent controversy over her gender last summer stoked by Donald Trump, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. World Boxing, which is taking over running Olympic boxing in Los Angeles in 2028, ordered Khelif to undergo testing before a competition in the Netherlands in early June. She skipped the event. During the Paris Games, the International Boxing Association, which was booted out of the Olympics by the IOC in 2019, accused Khelif, raised as a girl, of carrying XY chromosomes. Chromosomal screening attracts criticism, notably from the World Medical Association and human rights organisations. 'Highly invasive' "It is far from being scientifically accurate as a performance indicator, while being very harmful to the athletes affected," Madeleine Pape, a sociologist of gender in sport at the University of Lausanne, told AFP. While World Athletics and World Aquatics both say transgender women have a muscular advantage, Pape, who ran the 800m for Australia at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, disagrees. She said there is a lack of research proving that transgender athletes or those with or one of the many forms of DSD gain a "disproportionate advantage" over XX competitors. Explaining performance is so complex that this uncertainty applies to "all athletes," said Pape. She also said it was possible to have an XY chromosome while being "totally or partially insensitive to testosterone," as was the case with Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patino, who after missing out on the 1988 Olympics was the first woman to successfully challenge the femininity tests in court. Aware of these limitations, World Boxing and World Athletics are proposing additional steps after SRY screening which could include anatomical examination. "Chromosomal tests seem very simple, very clean, but there is a lot of complexity behind them: potentially a highly invasive and non-standardised gynaecological examination, or expensive genetic sequencing that is inaccessible in many countries," said Pape. Ultimately, the future of such tests could be decided in the courts. The European Court of Human Rights is expected to rule on July 10, for a second time, on the case of DSD athlete Caster Semenya, the double Olympic 800m champion. The South African was barred from competing under an earlier version of the World Athletics rules. In 2023, the court ruled that her rights had been infringed but that decision did not force WA to reinstate her.
LeMonde
an hour ago
- LeMonde
Upgraded Olympic balloon set to rise again in Paris
A giant balloon that became a popular landmark over the skies of Paris during the 2024 Olympics is set to rise again, with organizers hoping it will once again attract crowds of tourists. During the Games, the Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flew above the Tuileries garden at sunset every day, with thousands flocking to see the seven-meter wide ring of electric fire. Last summer's version "had been thought up to last for the length of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the cauldron. After President Emmanuel Macron "decided to bring it back, all of the technical aspects needed to be reviewed," he told AFP on Thursday. Lehanneur said he was "very moved" that the Olympic balloon was making a comeback. "The worst thing would have been for this memory to become a sitting relic that couldn't fly anymore," he said. The new cauldron will take to the skies on Saturday evening during France's annual street music festival, the Fête de la Musique. The balloon will rise into the air every evening until September 14 – a summer tradition set to return every year until the 2028 Los Angeles Games. "For its revival, we needed to make sure it changed as little as possible and that everything that did change was not visible," said Lehanneur. With a decarbonated fire patented by French energy giant EDF, the upgraded balloon follows "the same technical principles" as its previous version, said director of innovation at EDF Julien Villeret. The improved attraction "will last 10 times longer" and be able to function for "300 days instead of 30," according to Villeret. The creators of the balloon also reinforced the light-and-mist system that "makes the flames dance," he said. Under the cauldron, a machine room hides cables, a compressor and a hydro-electric winch. That system will "hold back the helium balloon when it rises and pull it down during descent," said Jerome Giacomoni, president of the Aerophile group that constructed the balloon. "Filled with 6,200 m3 of helium that is lighter than air," the Olympic balloon "will be able to lift around three tonnes" of cauldron, cables and attached parts, he said. The Tuileries garden is where French inventor Jacques Charles took flight in his first gas balloon on December 1, 1783, Giacomoni added. He followed in the footsteps of the famed Montgolfier brothers, who had just nine days earlier elsewhere in Paris managed to launch a similar balloon into the sky with humans onboard. The website is to display the times when the modern-day balloon will rise and indicate any potential cancellations due to weather conditions.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Olympic balloon to rise again in Paris
During the Games, the Olympic cauldron tethered to a balloon flew above the Tuileries garden at sunset every day, with thousands flocking to see the seven-metre (23 feet) wide ring of electric fire. Last summer's version "had been thought up to last for the length of the Olympic and Paralympic Games," said Mathieu Lehanneur, the designer of the cauldron. After President Emmanuel Macron "decided to bring it back, all of the technical aspects needed to be reviewed", he told AFP on Thursday. Lehanneur said he was "very moved" that the Olympic balloon was making a comeback. "The worst thing would have been for this memory to become a sitting relic that couldn't fly anymore," he said. The new cauldron will take to the skies on Saturday evening during France's annual street music festival, the Fete de la Musique. The balloon will rise into the air every evening until September 14 -- a summer tradition set to return every year until the 2028 Los Angeles Games. "For its revival, we needed to make sure it changed as little as possible and that everything that did change was not visible," said Lehanneur. With a decarbonated fire patented by French energy giant EDF, the upgraded balloon follows "the same technical principles" as its previous version, said director of innovation at EDF Julien Villeret. The improved attraction "will last ten times longer" and be able to function for "300 days instead of 30", according to Villeret. The creators of the balloon also reinforced the light-and-mist system that "makes the flames dance", he said. Under the cauldron, a machine room hides cables, a compressor and a hydro-electric winch. That system will "hold back the helium balloon when it rises and pull it down during descent", said Jerome Giacomoni, president of the Aerophile group that constructed the balloon. "Filled with 6,200 m3 of helium that is lighter than air," the Olympic balloon "will be able to lift around three tonnes" of cauldron, cables and attached parts, he said. The Tuileries garden is where French inventor Jacques Charles took flight in his first gas balloon on December 1, 1783, Giacomoni added. He followed in the footsteps of the famed Montgolfier brothers, who had just nine days earlier elsewhere in Paris managed to launch a similar balloon into the sky with humans onboard.
