Turns out, when professional golfers are allowed to pick their balls up and place them back down nicely in the fairway, they can tear apart a golf course.
That's been the case at the Tour Championship in Atlanta, where heavy rains earlier in the week prompted tournament officials to allow lift-and-place on any ball that lands in a fairway. The result? Well, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Chris Gotterup shot 7-under 63s Friday and weren't even the low rounds of the day. That distinction belongs to Cameron Young, who fired a 62 despite a front-nine bogey.
The chase for the $10 million first-place check, the largest prize in all of golf, has turned into a boat race — one that on Friday left behind world No 1. Scottie Scheffler. Leading the way are Fleetwood and Russell Henley, who both sit at -13 — two shots clear of the field heading into the weekend
Five shots back is Scheffler, who is trying to become the first back-to-back winner of the Tour's end-of-season, three-tournament playoff. Scheffler started the day at -7, in second place, finished it at -8 ... in sixth.
Here's a look at the biggest questions with 36 holes to play:
Is it Tommy Fleetwood time?
Fleetwood is ranked No. 10 in the world, and yet he's never won on the PGA Tour. A lot has been made of this, and for good reason. Mostly it's because Fleetwood is seemingly always in contention, yet never finishing his Sundays holding a trophy (on this side of the pond, anyway, as Fleetwood does have seven wins on the European tour). He will be an integral part of the European Ryder Cup squad in a few weeks. For now, though, the question is this: Can he finally break his U.S. drought and win stateside? Or will another near miss add yet another brick to the doubt that's undoubtedly already crept in?
Can Scheffler rally?
It was a slog for Scheffler, but we did get this from the well-publicized most boring golfer in golf:
Comedic gold from the world No. 1, who nearly had his streak of under-par rounds end at 18 because of shots like that. The streak actually looked over after he put his drive on 18 into the rough. But then he fired a dart on his third shot, nearly holing it from 136 yards out. He settled for a birdie that gave him a 1-under 69 and kept his under-par streak alive at 19 rounds and counting.
Is he out of contention? Well, consider this: Of the five players in front of him, only Cantlay has a win of this magnitude on his resume, and that came back in 2021 when he won this very event.
Is Patrick Cantlay playing himself onto the U.S. Ryder Cup team?
When last the Ryder Cup was staged in 2023, Cantlay was one of the few bright spots on a U.S. squad that got dominated in Rome. This time around, he's got work to do just to make the team as he finished 15th in the points standings, well back of the top six who automatically qualified. And yet here he is making a last-second push to impress U.S. captain Keegan Bradley. Cantlay (-10) is just three shots back after an eagle at the 18th, showing once again that he can hang with the world's best.
Is Keegan Bradley making things difficult for Captain Keegan Bradley?
When deciding on his six captain picks for next month's Ryder Cup, Keegan Bradley will no doubt be looking for players who can thrive under pressure. Friday, one of those players under consideration rebounded from a less-than-stellar opening round — an even-par 70 — with a 6-under 64 to put himself back in contention. It's the kind of resilience that should catch the eye of the U.S. captain. So, did Keegan Bradley's Friday 64 catch the eye of Captain Keegan Bradley?
"It's becoming very difficult to detach," Bradley said Friday after his round, explaining that while he's playing he's constantly thinking about the upcoming Ryder Cup — be it captain's picks or pairings he should consider.
The pressure of making those decisions, particularly the pairings, is only going to increase when he actually has to make them at Bethpage. Is this an indication that he might be leaning towards not picking himself?
Shane Lowry dropped a bomb
Not really a question, but worth a look.
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