Travelers Championship Round 2: Scheffler Stumbles at 17 as Thomas and Fleetwood Pull Even

Scottie Scheffler spent most of Friday with a comfortable cushion at TPC River Highlands. Then the 17th hole happened, and the Travelers Championship got a lot more crowded.

Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood are tied for the 36-hole lead at 9-under 131. Thomas fired a 64, Fleetwood shot 65 with two eagles in a three-hole span, and Scheffler limped home with a 69 after a late double bogey. Jason Day is one back at 8 under after a second straight 66. Denny McCarthy (64) and first-round co-leader Austin Eckroat (71) sit two back at 7 under.

Wind, Hats and Chairs

Thursday was breezy. Friday was something else. Gusts topped 30 mph, the wind kept switching direction, and hats and empty chairs went tumbling around the property. The field averaged 70.7, nearly two shots tougher than the opening round and the highest second-round scoring average at the Travelers since 2017, per the AP.

That number explains the leaderboard. On a day when par was a decent score, a 64 was a statement and a 65 was a heist.

The 17th Bites the Favorite

Scheffler did not play badly. He bogeyed the sixth but otherwise controlled his ball in conditions that punished everybody, and for most of the afternoon the defending champion looked ready to carry a multi-shot lead into the weekend.

The par-4 17th, the water hole that had already cost him a bogey on Thursday, changed that. His tee shot drifted in the wind into a fairway bunker. His second found the water. His fourth barely reached the putting surface, and the double bogey wiped out his edge in a matter of minutes.

Scheffler did not sound rattled. He said nobody gets every wind read right in those conditions and that the job is to manage your way around, which is about as Scheffler a response as exists. He is still tied for the lead and still the favorite with the betting markets, but he is no longer alone.

Fleetwood Finds the Window

Fleetwood's 65 was built on two swings of real craft. At the par-5 13th, he had 240 yards to carry the water and 264 to the hole with the wind swirling. He waited, read it and hit 9-wood onto the green, then rolled in the eagle putt.

"I just sort of caught the right moment," Fleetwood said, per the AP.

Two holes later, at the reachable 15th, he chipped in from 89 feet for a second eagle, the PGA TOUR's Shot of the Day. A birdie at 16 followed, and the Englishman who has piled up titles around the world but is still searching for his first on the PGA TOUR was suddenly sharing the lead.

JT Plays Angry

Thomas came to Cromwell carrying a grudge. He shot 76-76 and missed the cut at Oakmont, his second straight missed cut in a major, and he admitted Friday that those results still leave him "pretty pissed off."

Friday, he took it out on River Highlands. Thomas birdied five straight holes from No. 11 to No. 15, two of them from roughly 25 feet, and he poured in more than 146 feet of putts on the day, according to CBS Sports. Even his misses worked out. He missed well left off the tee at 17, the same hole that wrecked Scheffler, and still walked away with par.

Thomas said the wind forced him to stop thinking about swing positions and simply play golf, shaping the ball to fit what the conditions demanded. He is No. 4 in the FedExCup and owns 16 PGA TOUR wins, the same number as the man he is tied with.

Day, McCarthy and the Chase

Day's 66 was a tale of two nines. He went three birdies, three bogeys and three pars on the front, then shot 31 on the back to slide within one.

McCarthy matched Thomas for the low round of the day, a 64 that jumped him 31 spots up the leaderboard. Eckroat cooled off with a 71 but did not go away. Keegan Bradley shot an even-par 70 and Nick Taylor a 68 to sit at 6 under, three back.

Rory Survives the Grind

Rory McIlroy's day started ugly. He was 3 over through four holes and at one point trailed Scheffler by eight. He clawed back to a 71, and his adventure at 17 summed up the afternoon: a bunker shot that skipped off the water and back into the fairway, followed by a bogey anyway. He sits at 5 under with Patrick Cantlay, who shot 68 despite a double at 13.

McIlroy saw the bright side of the chaos. "The conditions today definitely bunched the entire field together and should make for an exciting weekend," McIlroy said.

He has a point. With no cut in this Signature Event and calmer winds in the forecast for Saturday, the 36-hole picture is wide open: three tied at the top, a dozen players within four shots and the world No. 1 needing to prove 17 was a blip.

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.

Sources: PGA TOUR (Round 2 recap, Justin Thomas feature and leaderboard), AP, CBS Sports. More golf coverage on Undrafted.

Photo: PGA TOUR.