McKinney, Texas — The 2023 AT&T Byron Nelson is halfway complete, and it’s none other than Dallas’ own Scottie Scheffler who sits alone atop the leaderboard through 36 holes. In pursuit of a hometown victory, Scheffler carried over the momentum of a first-round 64, replicating that score Friday to take a one-stroke lead entering the weekend at TPC Craig Ranch in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex suburb of McKinney.
The Nelson serves as a final tuneup for next week’s PGA Championship, and getting the job done in his own backyard would be a meaningful feat for world No. 2 ahead of golf’s second major of the season. Scheffler won in Texas at last year’s WGC Match Play in Austin, but he has yet to prevail in one of the two annual Tour events based in North Texas. Scheffler’s best finish to date at Nelson was a tie for 15th in last year’s event, two weeks before he lost in a playoff during the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth.
As the marquee name and the betting favorite entering the this year’s Nelson, the Scheffler expects plenty of patrons to be backing him the next two days. Though the wet weather has held off thus far, rain remains in the forecast Saturday and Sunday as the 26-year-old seeks to fend off challengers and make it a weekend to remember before the second major of the season.
“It should be a lot of fun,” Scheffler said. “Hopefully the hometown fans will be out there tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens with the rest of the leaderboard. I don’t know what the weather is going to look like this afternoon, it’s still early on Friday, but we’ll see what happens as the weekend shakes up. But I don’t think we’ll be too far behind [at worst]. We’re definitely in a good spot going into the weekend.”
Here’s a deeper look at the second round for Scheffler and those in pursuit, including another golfer vying for his first hometown win.
The leader
1. Scottie Scheffler (-14)
As it turns out, a 4:20 a.m. wakeup call for a 7:34 a.m. tee time isn’t so bad when you are enjoying the comforts of your own home. Relatively calm conditions also helped produced low scores in the morning hours before the Texas winds picked up in the afternoon, and Scheffler capitalized with the lead in hand at the halfway mark of the event.
Scheffler enjoyed a birdie-birdie start after teeing off on par-4 10th hole, putting him 6 under within his last seven holes of golf at that point after recording two birdies and an eagle within the final five holes Thursday. Scheffler’s eight birdies Friday tied for the most of any golfer on the course, and he was bogey-free until he had trouble with his approach shot on his second-to-last hole of the day, the par-4 8th. Scheffler rebounded with a closing birdie on the par-5 9th, that after having a decent look at eagle.
“It’s nice getting some birdies out of the way early around this place,” Scheffler said. “Obviously, the scores are pretty low, so it’s nice when you can get off to a good start.”
To his point, Scheffler will presumedly need to keep the low scores coming in order to prevail at an event regarded as a birdie-fest in recent year: 25 under was the winning score at Craig Ranch in 2021, and 26 under did the job in 2022.
Others in contention
T2. Ryan Palmer, Mackenzie Hughes (-13)
4. Si Woo Kim (-11)
5. Richy Werenski (-10)
It’s somewhat appropriate that another golfer playing in his backyard, so to speak, sits right behind Scheffler as the stakes increase at Craig Ranch. Palmer, who resides in nearby Colleyville, followed up a 7-under 64 Thursday with 6-under 65 Friday to remain a shot back of the lead through 36 holes. Palmer’s round featured seven birdies and a 3-under 32 on the back nine, playing bogey-free golf the final 16 holes.
A four-time winner on Tour, the 46-year-old Palmer is looking for a bit of a surge with two events being held in his home state of Texas this month. Palmer was riding a skid of four consecutive missed cuts before finishing in a tie for 35th at the Wells Fargo Championship last week at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte. He flirted with a Nelson victory in 2011 before losing in a playoff at TPC Las Colinas in Irving, and he was the 36-hole leader at the event last year at Craig Ranch.
“The work I’ve been putting into it, it showed last week for the first time in a long time,” Palmer said. “It wasn’t the finish you’d want, but when I look back at 35th last week, it’s a start, and we’re getting closer. It’s carried over and is showing right now.”
As for the other man tied with Palmer, Hughes played a clean round from start to finish, but it wasn’t until late in his round that the two-time winner on Tour turned up the heat. Hughes played his final five holes 5 under, including a chip-in birdie on the par-4 16th, en route to carding a 7-under 64 and reaching 13-under for the event. After a birdie on the par-3 17th, it looked somewhat likely Hughes would catch Scheffler at 14-under for a share of the lead, but he was forced to settle for a par on the accessible par-5 18th.
Still, Hughes will have no shortage of momentum entering the weekend after matching Scheffler and Harrison Endycott for the low round of the day. And that’s after missing cuts in his last two starts at the RBC Heritage and Wells Fargo Championship. Hughes does already have a victory in hand this season, beating Sepp Straka in a playoff to win the Sanderson Farms Championship this past fall.
K.H. Lee’s quest for three-peat on life support
The two-time defending Nelson champion flirted with an early exit, making the cut on the number at 4 under for the event. Lee posted a 3-under 68 in the first round — a modest score considering the frequent low rounds at Craig Ranch — before carding a 1-under 70 Friday that was just enough to continue on. Lee spent much of his second round outside the projected cutline, and it was a birdie on his final hole of the day that ultimately secured his spot for the weekend. Alas, it’s going to take a Herculean effort for Lee, who sits 10 shots off the lead, to have any chance at becoming just the sixth player in the last 50 years to win the same Tour event three straight times.