FedEx St. Jude Championship Round 2: Tommy Fleetwood Storms Ahead Before the Storm

Tommy Fleetwood has spent years as one of the best players in the world without a PGA TOUR trophy. On Friday in Memphis, before a thunderstorm chased everyone off TPC Southwind, he played like someone who is tired of hearing about it.

Fleetwood shot 6-under 64 to reach 13-under 127 at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. When the horn sounded at 3:31 p.m. local time, he led by four. Justin Rose, one of 21 players who had to come back Saturday morning to finish, picked up a birdie over the final two holes after the restart for a 66 that trimmed the gap to three at the halfway mark. Collin Morikawa (65) and first-round leader Akshay Bhatia (69) sit four back at 9 under, Kurt Kitayama (63) and Andrew Novak (64) are at 8 under, and Scottie Scheffler is six behind at 7 under.

A Front-Nine Burst and a Back-Nine Run

Fleetwood picked up where Thursday's four-birdie finish left off. He birdied the second, third and fourth holes, the last of those with a 30-foot putt from the fringe at the par-3 fourth. Around the turn he needed a pair of par saves to keep the card clean, then he took off again.

Birdie putts of about 15 feet dropped at 13 and 14. A wedge to 5 feet set up another at 15. At the par-5 16th he got home in two and two-putted from around 30 feet. At one stage the lead was five. Per Field Level Media, he went 30 straight holes without a bogey, making 14 birdies in that stretch.

The only blemish came at the last. Fleetwood found a fairway bunker off the tee, advanced the ball into thick rough, and played safe to around 50 feet before making bogey.

The Question That Follows Him

Everyone in Memphis knows the subplot. Fleetwood is 34, in his 15th season as a pro, with seven DP World Tour titles and a world ranking of 15th. What he does not have is a PGA TOUR win. The most recent near miss still stings: at the Travelers Championship in June, Fleetwood three-putted from just short of the 18th green and watched Keegan Bradley birdie to win.

"It hasn't happened for me yet out on the PGA TOUR," Fleetwood said, per the PGA TOUR. He said he would still much rather be in contention and come up short than not be there at all, and then he let himself think about it for one sentence: "Maybe this weekend is the weekend," he said.

Per Field Level Media, a Fleetwood win would give the TOUR back-to-back first-time winners after Cameron Young broke through at the Wyndham Championship.

Rose Finishes the Job Saturday Morning

Rose was 9 under with two holes left when the storm hit, having just birdied the par-5 16th. Thunder rolled over TPC Southwind, heavy rain and reported hail followed, the course flooded, and nobody played again Friday.

Play resumed at 7:30 a.m. Central on Saturday, and Rose closed out a 66 built on seven birdies and three bogeys to get to 10-under 130. That put the 2025 FedEx St. Jude's two English headliners at the top of the board heading into a third round sent off both tees in threesomes.

Kitayama Keeps Climbing

The low round of the day belonged to Kitayama, who shot 63 to vault to 8 under. The story behind the number is wild. Kitayama sat 110th in the FedExCup standings two weeks ago, won the 3M Open, and arrived in Memphis at No. 52, two spots short of next week's BMW Championship. Kitayama admitted to peeking at the scoreboard but said the only thing to do was keep playing well.

"But you can't control what everyone else is doing," Kitayama said, per the PGA TOUR.

Morikawa's 65 had the shot of the day, a hole-out from the fairway for eagle at the par-4 ninth. It was a welcome sight for a player who had missed the cut at both the Scottish Open and The Open and arrived with his fifth caddie of the season, Mark Urbanek, per Field Level Media. Morikawa was blunt that his game was not good coming into the week.

Scheffler Grinds, Spieth Sweats

Scheffler's 66 was the strangest card on the board: eight birdies and four bogeys. Three of those bogeys came on the back nine, mostly from rough that swallowed the ball, and he looked frustrated at times. Still, he is 7 under, six back, and the No. 1 seed is already his for another week.

Bhatia never found the gear that produced Thursday's 62. His 69 included 15 pars, which kept him in the hunt without moving the needle.

Further down, the playoff math kept squeezing. Jordan Spieth shot 70 with three birdies and three bogeys and is 12 back, trying to avoid a second straight year outside the top 50. Bud Cauley (69), who started the week at No. 53, was tied for seventh when play stopped and is among the group at 7 under. With only the top 50 moving on, every weekend shot shifts somebody's projection.

Halfway Takeaway

Fleetwood has the lead, the ball-striking and the experience of being here before. Rose has the closest seat and plenty of big-moment history of his own. Scheffler has the six-shot gap and the reputation that makes six feel smaller than it should. Saturday will be a long day, and the first job for Fleetwood is simple: start the weekend the way the first 36 holes went.

Catch up on Thursday in our Round 1 recap. Full scoring is on the official PGA TOUR leaderboard (opens in a new tab), and the TOUR's Round 2 recap (opens in a new tab) has more details.

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 2 recap, weather update and leaderboard), AP, Field Level Media, Golf Channel, RTE. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.