Open champ 'rested, ready' to fire again in playoffs
Scheffler, the world No.1, is fresh from capturing his fourth major with a four-stroke victory just over two weeks ago at Royal Portrush.
What's he been doing in the meantime?
"Went home not shortly after, and then got some rest," Scheffler said. "I took a little bit of extra time resting. I think just because playing major championships takes a lot out of you, so it was nice to get home and get a little bit of extra rest."
Hopefully for Scheffler's sake, the break in his schedule doesn't create an issue with his results. He has recorded 11 consecutive top-10 finishes heading into the playoff opener in Memphis.
"Well, I think it all comes down to the preparation and showing up ready to play," he said.
"At this point in the year, that extra practice is maybe only going to be draining for me a little bit, and that's something that I've learned to manage as my career has gone on.
"So making sure I'm rested, ready to play.
"My game is in a good spot, and I feel like some extra practice at this point in the year can almost be detrimental in terms of just physical and mental fatigue. Showing up like you're ready to play."
Scheffler, 29, also has showed up on the big screen with a light-hearted cameo in "Happy Gilmore 2." The golfer even finds himself in trouble with the law, resulting in the police hauling him away.
"Oh, no. Not again," he says in the movie.
All jokes aside, Scheffler said he really enjoyed his time in that environment.
"I mean, being able to film a movie was really fun," he said. "They got a great turnout from current players and past players. I think it's just because the first movie was so iconic and Adam Sandler is such an iconic actor and a guy that was a real treat to be able to work with. I had a ton of fun being able to film it.
"The reviews for the movie so far have been great. I really enjoyed watching it. I thought they did a great job with the script and the golfers did a great job acting. Will Zalatoris in his role cracked me up. The dinner scene, there were so many good one-liners in it."
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The Advertiser
14 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Why Happy Gilmore was an unlikely stroke of comedy genius
Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'." Happy Gilmore was born on the range. When Adam Sandler was a kid growing up in New Hampshire, his father was an avid golfer. He'd often take his son along to hit balls at the driving range. But Sandler was uninterested in the sport, and usually got antsy. "Why don't you bring a friend?" his dad told him. So Sandler took his buddy, Kyle McDonough, a star hockey player who would later turn professional. "He never played before but he was cracking the ball so far," Sandler recalls. "So when I started becoming a comedian and me and [Tim] Herlihy were writing stuff and stand-up and talking about movies, I started thinking about a guy who could hit it really big and had a hockey player mentality." Happy Gilmore, released in 1996, was Sander and Herlihy's second movie, following Billy Madison. Sandler was just exiting Saturday Night Live. Herlihy was Sandler's roommate at New York University and became a lawyer before Sandler got him to stick to writing comedy. (You might remember the Herlihy Boy sketch.) "We had just done our first movie, Billy Madison, and we put every idea we ever had for a movie in that movie," says Herlihy. "So when they said we could do another movie, it was like, 'What are we going to do this movie about?'" Happy Gilmore, released in February 1996, became one of the most beloved comedies of the '90s and codified the hockey-style swing as a mainstay on golf courses. "A hop, skip and a hit," as Sandler says. The movie also made comic heroes of Bob Barker, Christopher McDonald and Carl Weathers, and made lines like "Are you too good for your home?" plausible things to ask golf balls. Like most cult comedies, Happy Gilmore didn't start out an obvious instant classic, though. "A one-joke Caddyshack for the blitzed and jaded," wrote Entertainment Weekly. "To describe Happy's antics as boorish is putting it mildly," wrote The New York Times. "Happy Gilmore tells the story of a violent sociopath," wrote Roger Ebert. He called it "the latest in the dumber and dumbest sweepstakes". Happy Gilmore was a box-office success, grossing $39 million in the United States and Canada. And through worn-out DVDs and regular TV reruns, it became a favorite to generations of golfers and a staple of goofy '90s comedy. "I can't even tell you how many times I've seen that movie," says the actor-filmmaker Benny Safdie, who co-directed Sandler in Uncut Gems. "It was on an endless loop. I had the DVD and I just kept watching it. I can close my eyes and see the movie end to end. It's one of my favorite movies." Now, nearly three decades later, and after years of batting away pleas for a sequel, Sandler has finally put Happy's Bruins jersey back on. Happy Gilmore 2, airing on Netflix, is arguably the most anticipated streaming release of the US summer. Sandler was well aware of the chequered history of comedy sequels. Movies like Zoolander 2 and Anchorman 2 have struggled to recapture the freewheeling spirit of the originals. The movie Sandler counts as his favorite, Caddyshack - so much so that he was initially hesitant to make a golf comedy - spawned 1988's woebegone Caddyshack II. "If someone brought it up to us, we were like, 'Yeah, no, we're not going to do that'," Sandler said in a recent interview alongside Herlihy. "There was no moment we went 'Aha'. It just kind of happened. The last couple years, we were talking about Happy and how it might be funny if he was down and out." In Happy Gilmore 2, co-written by Sandler and Herlihy, Happy is a decorated retired golfer with four sons and a daughter (played by Sandler's daughter, Sunny Sandler). But after a tragic incident and falling on hard times, he's lured back into golf. This time, though, Happy is an insider, motivated to protect the sport. Safdie co-stars as the founder of Maxi Golf, a new circus-like tour with long hitters. "We thought it could be fun to write something like that" says Sandler. "It kind of connected to our lives and this age, and wanting to make a full-on comedy. There's nothing better than dropping a comedy and trying to make people laugh, to us. It feels like why we originally got into this business." Big, broad comedies have grown almost extinct in the decades since Happy Gilmore. Returning to that style of comedy was, for Sandler and Herlihy, the best reason to make the sequel. For the 58-year-old friends and regular collaborators, it was a chance to riff like they used to. "We were outlining the story together and then we were like, 'We should watch the first one again, man'," Sandler says. "We're going off of our memory of so many things, hanging out with Carl Weathers and Bob Barker and all that stuff. Then we watched it and we were like, 'Oh, yeah.' It was a tone." "It made a little more sense than Billy Madison'," says Herlihy, "but we weren't afraid to swing, swing, swing." Cameos, of course, were a major part of Happy Gilmore. (The Bob Barker scene was originally written for Ed McMahon.) In the years since, many of the faces of the original have died, including Barker, Weathers, Frances Bay, the hulking Richard Kiel and Joe Flaherty, who played the heckler. Even the golf ball-stealing alligator, Morris, has passed on. Happy Gilmore 2, unusually elegiac for a proudly silly comedy, nods to all of them. For the sequel, many others, like Travis Kelce, Bad Bunny and Margaret Qualley, were lining up to be a part of it. So were pro golfers. Just about all the big names in golf, including several legends, appear. The day after winning Sunday's British Open, Scottie Scheffler flew to New York for the premiere. Over the years, Herlihy and Sandler have seen a lot of them try "the Happy Gilmore". "I feel like when these golfers try to do it, these pros, they're 5 per cent thinking, 'Maybe this will work'," says Herlihy, laughing. "I played with Bryson [DeChambeau] like a week ago and when he did it, it was ridiculous," adds Sandler. "He literally blasted it 360 and just kept walking. I was like, 'Did he just smash the Happy Gilmore and not even think about it?'" It's possible that "the Happy Gilmore" will even outlive the movies. There's a good chance that, even as you read this, somewhere some kid is trying it, hoping to get a laugh and maybe get it on the fairway, too. "When we were putting it together, I called my dad and asked him if it was legal. He was like, 'I don't see why not'," Sandler remembers. "Then there are some people who look at it and go: 'It does help you swing hard ... Maybe it's a good thing'."
Perth Now
18 hours ago
- Perth Now
Tommy guns his way to four-shot lead in FedEx playoffs
England's Tommy Fleetwood, seeking his first win on the US PGA Tour, followed a first-round 63 with a second-round 64 to open up a handy four-shot buffer at the FedEx St Jude Championship. Play was suspended in the afternoon on Friday (local time), with 21 golfers on the course at TPC Southwind in Memphis as heavy rains flooded the area. Second-round play in the opening tournament of the season- ending FedEx Cup playoffs will resume on Saturday morning before the third round begins off two tees in threesomes. Fleetwood's 13-under 127 total was four strokes better than Americans Collin Morikawa and Akshay Bhatia. Morikawa's five-under 65 on Friday included holing out from the fairway on the par-4 ninth for an eagle. Bhatia, the first-round leader after an eight-under 62, managed a 69 that included 15 pars. England's Justin Rose also was tied for second at nine under with two holes remaining when the rains hit. Kurt Kitayama posted a seven-under 63 to finish at eight-under 132. World No.1 Scottie Scheffler, who opened with a 67, had a roller-coaster round that included four bogeys and eight birdies, but finished at four-under 66 and stands at seven under. The Aussie contingent was well off the pace, with Jason Day at one under after a second-round 68. Cam Davis is also at one under, but is yet to finish his second round, currently even with the card after 10 holes. Min Woo Lee, who opened with a 76, carded a two-over 72 to be eight over after two rounds. A win by the 34-year-old Fleetwood would give the tour back-to-back first-time champions. Cameron Young won last weekend's Wyndham Championship, the final regular-season event. "Maybe this weekend is the weekend," Fleetwood said. "We'll see." In his 15th year as a pro, Fleetwood entered the second round one stroke behind Bhatia, but quickly overtook him by recording birdies in bunches. They came at Nos.2, 3 and 4 on the front side and at Nos.13, 14, 15 and 16 on the back nine. The Englishman has won seven times on the European Tour, his last victory coming in the 2024 Dubai Invitational. He has come close multiple times on the PGA Tour. Among his three top-10 finishes in 2025 is a tie for second at the Travelers Championship in June. "Happy to put myself in with a chance over the weekend," Fleetwood said. "I think that's exactly where you want to be and keep testing yourself. Yeah, it hasn't happened for me yet out on the PGA Tour, but I would much rather be up there and not quite get it done than not there at all." Morikawa is trying to put his past two events - the Scottish Open and the Open Championship - behind him. He missed the cut in both, but is prospering after 36 holes in Memphis with a new caddie, Mark Urbanek, his fifth of the season. The top 70 in the FedEx Cup points standings qualified for the St Jude. Those who finish on Sunday ranked in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup points standings qualify for the BMW Championship, the second round of the playoffs to be held next week in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Perth Now
2 days ago
- Perth Now
Bhatia leds FedEx Cup first playoff as Aussies falter
Akshay Bhatia had a blazing finish to get his PGA Tour post-season off to a lightning start, closing eagle-birdie-birdie for an eight-under 62 to take a one-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood at the FedEx St Jude Championship. Scottie Scheffler, playing for the first time since winning the British Open for his second major of the year, made bogey on the final hole for a 67, his 10th straight round in the 60s. Bhatia entered the FedEx Cup playoffs in 45th, with only the top 50 advancing to the second of three tournaments in the lucrative post-season. The idea is to be among the top 30 who reach East Lake for a shot at the $10 million ($A15 million) bonus. The American was paired with Englishman Harry Hall, who is at No.44. Hall was matching Bhatia until the final two holes, when Bhatia rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th and fired a short iron into two feet on 18. Bhatia, who had his career-best round, said he had been spending too much time thinking about numbers, whether it's his score or his world ranking or his position in the FedEx Cup. The goal is to keep his mind peaceful. "I felt pretty relaxed, and I'm just not trying to force anything," he said. "It's OK to get mad at golf shots but not at yourself." Justin Rose and Bud Cauley also carded 64s on a TPC Southwind that has 18 new greens and a course with much thicker rough. Fleetwood is all but set for the FedEx Cup finale at No.9, though he would love to get that first PGA Tour title to go along with European tour wins against strong fields. He hit 13 out of 14 fairways, and the one he missed led to a birdie when he holed a bunker shot on No.9. "People talk about this golf course as a second-shot golf course, but it's only a second-shot golf course if you're in the fairway," Fleetwood said. "I hit the ball so well off the tee that I was always giving myself an opportunity." And then it helped to see the putts drop, four straight birdies to close out his round. Projections can fluctuate with shots from anyone on any part of the course. Rickie Fowler came in at No.64 and shot 66, which projects him inside the top 50. Jordan Spieth was at No.48. He had to rally on the back nine for a 69 that put him out of the top 50, and then back to No.50 by the end of the day. This is one of the more important weeks of the PGA Tour because of what's at stake. Not only do the top 50 advance to the BMW Championship, they are assured of being in all the $20m ($A30.6m) Signature events for next year. Needing a top-14 finish to progress, Cam Davis is the leading Australian in a tie for 27th after opening with a one-under 69. That elevated Davis from 69th to 64th in the live standings. Jason Day blew a fine start to his round, going four over on the back nine after negotiating the front nine in three under to slump to a 71. The former world No.1 is still likely to advance to the BMW Championship. But Min Woo Lee has ground to make up following an equal-worst-in-the-field first-round 76 that pushed him outside the top 50 in the live FedEx Cup standings. With AAP
