PGA Championship updates: Conners, Scheffler, Hovland tied for lead after Round 2

Day 2 of the 2023 PGA Championship is underway at Oak Hill.

Follow the action as the golfers battle to make the weekend cut.

Full leaderboard: Live updates to PGA Championship scores, schedules, pairings

Scheffler, Conners, Hovland in three-way tie at 5-under

Scottie Scheffler scrambled on the final two holes, saving par at 17 but then failing to do so at 18, so he finished with a 68. And Corey Conners, after relinquishing the lead with a bogey at No. 7, parred 8 and 9, his last two holes, to tie Scheffler for the top spot with an identical 68.

They were soon joined by Viktor Hovland who made a five-footer for birdie at 18 to finish off a 67 which created a three-way tie at No. 1.

Shane Lowry is authoring the round of the day

The Irishman who won the 2019 British Open is on a serious roll, the best one of anyone in the tournament thus far. He has made six birdies in his last eight holes and the last three at Nos. 13, 14 and 15 have taken him to 2-under for the tournament.

If he were to par in on the last three, that would be a 65 which would be the low round of the week. Of course, those last three are the 16th, 17th and 18th, a pretty tough stretch.

He trails Scottie Scheffler who just made a fantastic par save at 17, moments after Corey Conners made bogey at No. 7 and that puts Scheffler alone at the top at 6-under.

Lowry is taking advantage of ideal scoring conditions right now. There is almost no wind and the rain has softened the course making holding fairways and greens are a little easier. The morning groups played in sunny weather, but the wind was blowing pretty good.

Scottie Scheffler catches Corey Conners, tied for lead

Scheffler started his round birdies at Nos. 1 and 2 to move into the lead, but then a bogey at No. 7 allowed Conners to vault past him. Now, Scheffler has made back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 and he and Conners are tied at 6-under.

At the 14th, he drove near the green into the right rough and was able to get up and down for a birdie. And then at the par-5 15th he stuck his tee shot to within 15 inches for a tap-in birdie.

Scheffler has now played 33 holes and has made just the one bogey.

Jon Rahm is not a happy man

The Masters champion made bogey at the relatively easy 12th hole and that puts him on the wrong side of the projected cut of 5-over. On the tee, someone in the gallery distracted him at the top of his backswing and he pushed the shot into the right rough and was visibly upset as he looked in the direction of the perpetrator.

He then pulled his second shot to the left rough, gouged it onto the green and missed a 12-footer for par, swearing at himself as he walked off the putting surface. He has four holes left to get back to or under the cut line.

Corey Conners has made three straight pars since his last birdie and remains two shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler.

Canadian Corey Conners sets a new standard

For the first time in the tournament, a player has reached 6-under as Conners made birdie at No. 2, his 11th hole, to get to that number. That puts him two strokes ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Keegan Bradley, though Bradley just drove into Allen’s Creek at No. 7 and hit his third shot after his drop into a greenside bunker. He will be fortunate to avoid a double bogey.

Scottie Scheffler is human after all

Scheffler made his first bogey of the tournament at No. 7, ending a streak of 24 consecutive bogey-free holes. And that blip cost him the lead as he fell to 4-under, one stroke behind Canadian Corey Conners. Thursday, Scheffler played the first bogey-free round of his career in a major championship.

Conners started his round on the back nine and he has birdies at 13 and 15, but he just hit his tee shot on 18 into one of the troublesome bunkers on the right, so bogey is certainly in play there.

First-round leader Bryson DeChambeau made bogey at No. 3 so he’s now at 3-under, two strokes behind Conners, tied with Viktor Hovland who is 1-under through his first six holes.

Of course it has started to rain at Oak Hill

Now, let’s be honest here: What would a major tournament at Oak Hill be without a weather problem? The answer is it wouldn’t be a tournament at Oak Hill.

The rain started just as first-round leader Bryson DeChambeau stepped onto the first tee box to start his round. This on top of Thursday’s frost delay fits right in with the weather issues tournaments on the East Course have almost always had.

The good news is that it looks like a small cell and probably shouldn’t stick around too long. However, that’s not the outlook for Saturday when there’s a good chance it could be soggy most of the day.

Scottie Scheffler wasted no time taking the lead

The No. 2 player in the world ripped a perfect drive at No. 1, then stuck his approach within a foot for a tap-in birdie which brought him even with Bryson DeChambeau at 4-under.

And then at the second hole, Scheffler hit two more excellent shots and rolled in a 12-footer for birdie to move into the lead at 5-under. DeChambeau tees off at 2:31.

Rory McIlroy pulled his drive on the opening hole, then missed the green with his second but was able to get up and down for par. Meanwhile, Dustin Johnson’s day is done after a frustrating 4-over 74. At one point he was one shot off the lead but he made four bogeys and a double bogey at the sixth.

So far the round of the day has been turned in by Patrick Cantlay, a 3-under 67 which is outstanding in the breezy conditions. Cantlay opened with a 74 but he made four birdies on his first nine and five overall. He did end with a bogey at No. 9, his 18th of the day, preventing him from matching DeChambeau’s tournament best 66.

Michael Block leads the club pros

One facet of the PGA Championship that is unique is 20 of its members, the club pros of the PGA of America, qualify to play in the event. Of the 20, Michael Block has made the strongest impression as he has opened with back-to-back 70s and will be playing this weekend.

Block has qualified five times but this is the first time he has made the cut. His previous best score in a PGA Championship was a 72 in 2016 at Baltusrol.

The head pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club in Mission Viejo, California played in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2018 Open at Shinnecock Hills. He has also played in 20 PGA Tour events and made four cuts, the most recent coming at the 2015 Barbasol Championship.

How unusual is Block’s performance? Over the last 20 years, there have been only four club pros who were inside the top 40 after 36 holes. The last club pro to finish among the top 40 for the entire championship was Steve Schneiter in 2005 at Baltusrol (T-40).

With the wind up, so are the scores

If there’s one thing that is noticeable so far, the wind on Friday is creating more problems than the light breezes on Thursday.

The morning groups are mostly winding their way through their second nines, and at 12:45 p.m. no one has joined first-round leader Bryson DeChambeau at 4-under. A few have been tied, but they have since fallen off.

Justin Rose has missed every fairway off the tee and rather remarkably, it hasn’t killed him as he’s still at 3-under as he plays his 13th hole. Dustin Johnson began the day at 3-under but he’s back to even thanks to three bogeys and a double bogey at No. 6 which is playing incredibly difficult.

No one currently playing is under par for the tournament except Rose and Taylor Pendrith who just finished his round and is at 1-under 139.

Justin Rose has surged into a tie for the lead

The Englishman who owns one major championship victory at the 2013 U.S. Open began Friday at 1-under, but starting on the back nine, he has reeled off birdies at Nos. 10, 12 and 16 and has pulled into a tie with Bryson DeChambeau.

Adam Scott, who had such a disappointing finish late Thursday when he double-bogeyed the 18th to drop out of a tie for first, is still in the mix at 2-under as he has played even par through 10 holes.

One of the interesting leaderboard stories, club professional Michael Block, got to 3-under for the tournament through his seventh hole, but he just bogeyed No. 4 and double-bogeyed No. 5 for a quick descent.

East Course flexed its muscle in first round

During the first round, the average score was 73.67 and 16 of the 18 holes had an average score par. The only two under were the par-5 fourth and the par-4 14th holes.

And driving accuracy was a major problem for the players. With the course fairly dry, there was more runoff into the rough on drives that were close to the edges of the fairways. That led to just 41.8% of the fairways being hit, a far cry from the PGA Tour average which is about 59%.

Only 16 players shot under the East Course’s par of 70, while 10 players shot even-par and 130 were over-par. The hardest hole, which most expected it to be, was the 503-yard par-4 sixth hole. That played .404 strokes over par and yielded only 14 birdies as opposed to 80 pars, 49 bogeys, 11 double bogeys and 2 triple bogeys.

Suspended first round now complete at Oak Hill's PGA Championship

PGA Tour newcomer Eric Cole held the overnight lead after making it through 14 holes at 5-under-par during a weather-delayed opening round at Oak Hill. However, when he returned to the course early Friday, Cole found the water on the sixth hole and wound up with a double-bogey, dropping him a shot behind clubhouse leader Bryson DeChambeau.

Cole finished with three consecutive pars to conclude his round of 3-under 67.

With the other golfers − including Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay − who were left on the course as darkness suspended play Thursday finishing up, the first round is now in the books

- USA Today

No delay for Day 2 of PGA Championship at Oak Hill

Unlike Thursday, when frost delayed the start of the tournament for nearly two hours, players started their round as expected. Sam Ryder was the first to tee of on No. 1 at 7 a.m., joining the players who started deeper on the course to finish their rounds after darkness suspended play Thursday.

PGA Championship leaderboard entering Friday

• 1. Eric Cole -5 (through 14)

• 2. Bryson DeChambeau -4

• T3. Dustin Johnson -3

• T3. Corey Conners -3

• T3. Scottie Scheffler -3

• T6. Adam Scott -2

• T6. Keegan Bradley -2

• T6. Viktor Hovland -2

• T6. Ryan Fox -2

Round 2 tee times at PGA Championship

1st tee

7:00 a.m. – Sam Ryder, Gabe Reynolds, Brandon Wu7:11 a.m. – Sadom Kaewkanjana, Ben Kern, Thorbjorn Olesen7:22 a.m. – Webb Simpson, Y.E. Yang, Danny Willett7:33 a.m. – Sepp Straka, Harris English, Robert Macintyre7:44 a.m. – Thomas Pieters, Keith Mitchell, Pablo Larrazabal7:55 a.m. – Lucas Herbert, Brian Harman, Callum Shinkwin8:06 a.m. – Tom Kim, Sam Burns, Abraham Ancer8:17 a.m. – Sungjae Im, Chris Kirk, Seamus Power8:28 a.m. – Si Woo Kim, Stephan Jaeger, Anirban Lahiri8:39 a.m. – Victor Perez, Aaron Wise, Jordan Smith8:50 a.m. – Chris Sanger, J.J. Spaun, David Micheluzzi9:01 a.m. – Thomas Detry, J.J. Killeen, Matt Wallace9:12 a.m. – Nick Hardy, Greg Koch, Eric Cole12:30 p.m. – Trey Mullinax, Josh Speight, Kazuki Higa12:41 p.m. – Adam Schenk, Colin Inglis, Thriston Lawrence12:52 p.m. – Min Woo LeeAndrew Putnam, Emiliano Grillo1:03 p.m. – Harold Varner III, Scott Stallings, Nicolai Hojgaard1:14 p.m. – Steve Holmes, Adrian Otaegui, Davis Riley1:25 p.m. – Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Gary Woodland1:36 p.m. – Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa1:47 p.m. – Shane Lowry, Jordan Spieth, Viktor Hovland1:58 p.m. – Matthew Fitzpatrick, Cameron Smith, Jon Rahm2:09 p.m. – Luke Donald, Adrian Meronk, Yannik Paul2:20 p.m. – Kenny Pigman, Davis Thompson, Maverick McNealy2:31 p.m. – Keegan Bradley, Jason Day, Bryson DeChambeau2:42 p.m. – Jesse Droemer, Matt NeSmith, Rikuya Hoshino

10th tee

7:05 a.m. – Matt Cahill, Taylor Montgomery, Cam Davis7:16 a.m. – Michael Block, Hayden Buckley, Taylor Pendrith7:27 a.m. – Alex Beach, Brendon Todd, Sihwan Kim7:38 a.m. – Patrick Reed, Rasmus Hojgaard, Nick Taylor7:49 a.m. – Christiaan Bezuidenhout, John Somers, Chez Reavie8:00 a.m. – Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young, Hideki Matsuyama8:11 a.m. – Adam Scott, Max Homa, Tony Finau8:22 a.m. – Xander Schauffele, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson8:33 a.m. – Patrick Cantlay, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson8:44 a.m. – Alex Smalley, Russell Henley, Mito Pereira8:55 a.m. – Adam Hadwin, Matt Kuchar, Talor Gooch9:06 a.m. – Justin Rose, Billy Horschel, Francesco Molinari9:17 a.m. – Russell Grove, Patrick Rodgers, Ben Taylor12:25 p.m. – Shaun Micheel, Braden Shattuck, Steven Alker12:36 p.m. – Ben Griffin, Chris French, Joel Dahmen12:47 p.m. – Wyatt Worthington II, Nico Echavarria, Wyndham Clark12:58 p.m. – Tom Hoge, Ryan Fox, K.H. Lee1:09 p.m. – Paul Casey, Adam Svensson, Beau Hossler1:20 p.m. – Zach Johnson, Kurt Kitayama, Sahith Theegala1:31 p.m. – Corey Conners, Ockie Strydom, Joaquin Niemann1:42 p.m. – Kevin Kisner, Jimmy Walker, Padraig Harrington1:53 p.m. – Alex Noren, J.T. Poston, Mackenzie Hughes2:04 p.m. – Lee Hodges, Callum Tarren, David Lingmerth2:15 p.m. – Taylor Moore, Denny McCarthy, Brendan Steele2:26 p.m. – Jeremy Wells, Justin Suh, Adri Arnaus2:37 p.m. – Anthony Cordes, Mark Hubbard, Dean Burmester

PGA Championship 2023 at Oak Hill: The guide for fans

What to know about: Parking and getting there | Merchandise available | The weather | How to watch | Where the players stay | Other things to do in Rochester | Where to eat, drink | Friday's preview

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: PGA championship Round 2 updates: Conners, Scheffler, Hovland tied at top