Scottie Scheffler’s record streak of 28 consecutive rounds under par came to a halt in baffling fashion as he three-putted from inside six-feet to double bogey the 18th hole at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Scheffler’s first double bogey in 218 holes forced him to settle for a level-par 70 and a share of second place on five-under at the halfway stage with Tony Finau leading the way on nine-under after a course record 62.
The world number one saw his par putt on 18 lip out but he showed a lack of concentration in attempting to polish off the bogey which would have extended his record of under par rounds to 29, but it also lipped out.
“I do that all the time. You watch me a lot, so that happens a lot to me,” Scheffler said of his lapse of concentration.
“No, yeah, frustrating lapse in judgment there. You never really know what’s going to be up there around the cup on 18. Yeah, just hit something and knocked the second one offline. Felt like I hit a good putt on the first one, maybe went just barely through the break so obviously it was a bit frustrating hitting a good putt and it not going in. Second one I guess just hit a little fast and didn’t see a spike mark there.”
A new driver shaft is paying dividends for Finau who leads by four shots heading into the weekend.
Finau was 139th in stokes gained putting during an opening 69 but some post round work saw him rise to third in that category as he rolled in seven birdies and an eagle with just one bogey.
“Yeah, it’s nice to have my coach out here, Boyd Summerhays. He noticed a little setup change that he mentioned that might help. I’d say it definitely helped today.”
Scheffler may be bidding for three PGA TOUR titles in a row, but Finau is the defending champion here.
“There’s always I think that added pressure. It’s a place that you’ve played well, obviously a course that I really like, so there’s that added pressure on both fronts. Overall, it’s a place that I have great memories coming back to. I get great support here from the fans. It is pressure, but I look forward to coming back and defending any title that I win.”
Finau has opted to change the shaft in his driver, with the Masters just two weeks away and it has worked a treat ranking 4th in strokes gained off the tee and fourth in driving accuracy.
“Yeah, so driving is one of the strengths of my game, maybe the strength of my game and I just haven’t been hitting the driver as good as I wanted. Spin numbers have been really high and it’s been enough time to where after last week I just, I was just kind of fed up. I was like all right, it’s time to make a change with the driver. We looked at shafts and I threw this one in and I’d say it was a nice change.
“I spent a solid 30, 40 minutes of just hitting drivers with the guys at Ping, who do a great job. We spent a lot of time starting on Monday, we did some on Tuesday, I took it out on the golf course yesterday in the pro-am to make sure that it was good. Yeah, it’s definitely a process, but I feel like it’s been working.”
Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington missed the cut on four-over after a second round of 74.
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