British Open - Scottie Scheffler's late surge snags halfway lead
Yahoo Sports senior writer Jay Busbee recaps Friday’s action at Royal Portrush - where the world’s top-ranked golfer shot the best round of the championship, and his career-low in a major - to seize a one-shot lead going into the weekend.
Video Transcript
On a strange day at the British Open, where we saw everything from sideways rain to a bat in the studio to a good old-fashioned rules controversy, at least one part of the game proceeded exactly as expected.
That is, if there's a leaderboard around, Scotty Scheffler's probably going to be right there at the top of it.
Now sure, Scheffler has very little experience on links courses.
This is just his 5th British Open, but you didn't think that was going to slow down the world number one for very long, did you?
Halfway home with the year's final major, Scheffler stands at -10, 1 stroke ahead of 2022 US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
Also near Scheffler at -8, China's Haotong Li and 2023 champion Brian Harman.
He's a Georgia Bulldog who caused quite a stir a couple of years ago when the British media learned about his love of hunting that earned him one of the great nicknames in golf, the butcher of Hoy Lake.
And on Friday, he carved up poor trash before most of the rest of the field teed off.
The afternoon wave, including Fitzpatrick and Scheffler, had to deal with brief but torrential rains, soaking downpour before the sun came out, you know, typical British Open weather.
And also in the mix, the Hoygaard twins, Nikolai and Rasmus, both of them up there on the leaderboard, as well as Tyrrell Hatton, Big Shot Bob McIntyre, Harris English and Scottish Open winner Chris Gotterup.
That whole group is at -5, except for Nikolai at -4, which is in theory within striking distance, in theory.
Oh, and we also had a bat in the broadcast booth and Shane Lowry's controversial ball movement, both of which you can read about on Yahoo Sports.
For now, get ready for the year's final days of major golf on what should be a heck of a weekend for Royal Portrush.
For Yahoo Sports, I'm Jay Busby.
