With back-to-back scores of 7-under 63, Xander Schauffele (1st/-14) is the only player bogey-free through 36 holes at the Travelers Championship. The 126 marks his lowest opening 36-hole score on the PGA TOUR.
The five-stroke lead ties this season’s largest after 36 holes (Keith Mitchell/THE CJ CUP @ SUMMIT, Scottie Scheffler/Masters Tournament).
Related: Flawless 62 a harbinger of hope for Rory McIlroy
Marks the largest 36-hole lead at the Travelers Championship since 1984 (previously four strokes on three occasions).
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Ties Justin Rose (2010) for lowest opening 36-hole score at the Travelers Championship since 1984.
Schauffele is 0-for-4 when attempting to convert a 36-hole lead/co-lead into victory.
This is his fourth start in the Travelers Championship (T14/2017, MC/2018, T20/2020).
He is seeking his sixth career TOUR title and second of the season (Zurich Classic of New Orleans, partnering with Patrick Cantlay); most recent individual stroke-play title came at the 2019 Sentry Tournament of Champions.
He has finished inside the top 20 in last five starts; comes off a T14 at last week’s U.S. Open.
Reigning FedExCup Champion Patrick Cantlay (T2/-9) opened his eighth Travelers Championship in 64-67. In his first start at TPC River Highlands in 2011, posted a second-round 10-under 60 which still stands as his career-low score.
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In his third TOUR start since returning from hip surgery, defending champion Harris English (T2/-9) offset two bogeys with eight birdies to post 6-under 64; looks to become the second player to successfully defend the tournament’s title (Phil Mickelson/2002) and fifth to successfully defend this season; won last year’s event after eight holes of sudden death against Kramer Hickok.
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Rory McIlroy (T7/-8) took a quadruple bogey on the par-4 12th en route an even-par 70. Marked his sixth such score and first since the 2021 PLAYERS Championship. The last player to win on TOUR in spite of a quadruple bogey was Adam Scott at the 2016 Honda Classic.
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Coming off a T12 at last week’s U.S. Open, Ireland’s Seamus Power (T7/-8) opens his fifth Travelers Championship in 67-65; best finish at TPC River Highlands came with T19 honors last year after Monday Qualifying to get into the field.
In search of a fifth TOUR victory this season, FedExCup leader and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler enters the weekend nine strokes back at 5-under 135. En route his first two career TOUR titles earlier this season at the WM Phoenix Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational, came from nine and eight strokes back, respectively, after 36 holes.
Notable to miss the cut were Jordan Spieth (+1) Sam Burns (E), Rickie Fowler (+3), Joaquin Niemann (+3).
Jason Kokrak was disqualified during Round Two for failing to record a score on his final hole and subsequently failing to return a scorecard.
