Xander Schauffele shrugs off Collin Morikawa’s charge to maintain his lead at the PGA Championship as he battles to FINALLY end his major drought

Xander Schauffele said he played the best golf of his life following his opening 62 at the PGA Championship Thursday. While Friday’s round wasn’t quite the same caliber, the leader will have no qualms.

Whereas he lapped the field with his opening nine-birdie, bogey-free affair, Schauffele was faced with the task of chasing on Friday.

While Schauffele waited to finally take to the course, Collin Morikawa had thrown down the gauntlet thanks to a flurry of five consecutive birdies.

And it was a challenge Schauffele accepted. If there had been any questions of whether he could finally hold on and close a major out, he swiftly answered them with his tenth birdie of the tournament at the second Friday.

Two more followed on the front nine to reach the turn at 12-under for the tournament and sank another at the 10th. He wasn’t cracking under the pressure. Not yet, anyway.

The first crack began to show at the par-three 11th when he left his birdie-putt attempt on the par-three short and failed to convert to save par. His first unforced error and his first bogey of the week.

But he pasted over it with steady pars for the remainder of his round, to card a three-under 68 for the halfway wire-to-wire lead at 12-under.

It wasn’t quite the nine birdies of the opening round before but it was still enough to protect his lead and ward off the threat of Morikawa.

‘When you’re playing with one of the easiest nine-unders you’ve ever seen, it makes you feel like you’re shooting a million,’ Schauffele’s playing partner Justin Thomas had said following his opening 62 Thursday.

Morikawa, watching on from the clubhouse, would have sympathized with the Louisville native when his 65, featuring a lone birdie, wasn’t enough to topple Schauffele from the top.

The 2020 champion birdied five consecutive holes before finishing with a bogey on his final six holes to card a six-under 65 and sit one shot back of Schauffele at 11-under.

‘Look, the little five-run birdie was me just playing solid golf, and sometimes when the putts drop, that’s what happened,’ Morikawa said.

‘But for the most part, that’s the kind of golf I’m going to ask for myself over the next two days and 36 holes is just stay present, hit your shots, execute them, and if the putts drop, the putts drop.

‘But really not force anything. I wasn’t forcing anything out there, especially throughout all of today.’

Morikawa had been somewhat of a stranger to the top of a major championship leaderboard since his 2021 Open win. That is until he made a phone call to a familiar face.

After a rough patch earlier this year the 27-year-old reunited with Rick Sessinghaus, the coach who helped him win two major championships.

He went on to contend at The Masters in April and now finds himself the greatest challenger to Schauffele. He tamed the tougher conditions at Valhalla on Friday to prove that he can once again produce his best on golf’s major stage.

‘I know I still have it in me, and that’s what’s exciting is that, after Augusta, it sucked to finish like that and it sucked to lose to Scottie, but at the end of the day, I knew I had three more majors coming up and to prep for that and get things as sharp as possible and just come out strong,’ he said. ‘It’s obviously nice to get off to this start.’