Written By Aidan Mastandrea
The second round has come to a close in Owings Mills, Maryland as Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre holds a commanding five shot lead – sitting at 14-under-par.
The newly renovated Caves Valley Golf Club has been a challenge for many of the players so far this week – with less than half of the field under-par – but MacIntyre has looked nothing but comfortable through two rounds. He took advantage of softer conditions after a heavy rain delay on Thursday, birdying his last six holes en route to an eight-under-par round of 62.
Round 2 was much of the same as he poured in six birdies to go along with zero bogeys. Robert MacIntyre’s big lead is foreign to him professionally, but he remembers holding large leads as an amateur. He looks to remain steady as the weekend comes.
“It’s only 36 holes gone. There’s a long way to go. I’m comfortable with who I am. I’m comfortable with the team around me, and I’m comfortable on this golf course,” MacIntyre said. “Just go and play golf.”
Robert MacIntyre is right, there is a long way to go, and the world No. 1 is lurking. Like he seems to always do, Scottie Scheffler recovered from a lull in the middle of Round 1 with three birdies in his last four holes – at the time posting the lead at four-under. As Scheffler arrived at the first tee at 1:38 p.m in for his second round, he found himself sitting nine shots off the lead.
“I knew kind of going into today that I was going to be fighting a little bit of an uphill battle, and did a good job of hanging in there and staying in the tournament,” said Scheffler.
The reigning FedEx Cup champion fired a Friday round of 65 and found himself in second place, five shots off of the lead set by Robert MacIntyre.
A Friday 64 catapulted Hideki Matsuyama up the leaderboard into a tie for third. The 2021 Masters champion has had a lackluster season by his standards after his win to open the season at The Sentry, and will look to chase down MacIntyre over the next two rounds.
Ludvig Åberg made a big push in the afternoon wave. Another player that has had a somewhat disappointing season to date, the 25-year-old, tied the low score of the day with his own six-under-par 64 to sit in solo third after 36 holes.
“Overall the greens are rolling nice, quite breaky putts, quite tricky and fast going down the hills, and you’ve got to leave yourself in the right spots, which is the way it’s supposed to be,” said Åberg. “I’m looking forward to two more good days.”
Tommy Fleetwood sits t-5 despite three bogeys on the back nine. Fresh off of the St. Jude Championship – where Fleetwood let go of a two shot lead with only a few holes remaining – he once again has played solid golf, putting himself near the top of another leaderboard at six-under-par. He continues to stay positive in his quest for his first PGA Tour Victory.
“I’ll keep learning, keep trying to put myself up there. That’s all I want to do, really,” Fleetwood said. “A lot more golf to play around a tough golf course. But I just want to keep trying my hardest and playing good golf.”
Michael Kim and Maverick McNealy also finished the second round at six-under-par for the tournament. A pack of players sits at 5-under – headlined by Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns.
Rory McIlroy sits 10 shots off the lead and feels he is too far back to make a run at the trophy.
“I think I’m just playing my own tournament at this point, shoot a good — play a good weekend. Again, just try to — no one is going to obviously replace Scottie at No. 1, but try to sort of solidify that No. 2 spot and then turn my attention to the TOUR Championship next week,” McIlroy said after round two.
MacIntyre is comfortably leading with 36 holes to go, but with stars like Åberg and Scheffler hot on his trail, there is still plenty to watch for this weekend. With a chance to play for the Tour Championship on the line, every shot will have strong implications the next two days.