LEADERBOARD<\/b><\/a><\/p>\nIreland’s Lowry began a shot off the lead but a dire six-over round of 76 left him four over for the tournament. As he finished, that was two shots above the projected cut-line, but it moved to four-over par as the round progressed.<\/p>\n
Tommy Fleetwood (+5) and Robert MacIntyre (+5) were other big names playing the waiting game after rounds of 73 and 75 respectively.<\/p>\n
World number one Scheffler struggled off the tee and he slipped away from the top of the leaderboard after three early bogeys.<\/p>\n
He hit back well after the turn as the morning starters could not stretch the lead beyond three under par. Scheffler headed for the clubhouse on two under par thanks to a morale-boosting birdie on his final hole.<\/p>\n
Rory McIlroy’s quest for a seventh major title started badly with a four-over opening round, meaning his first objective is also ensuring he makes the cut for the weekend.<\/p>\n
He started his round at 7.05pm Irish time.<\/p>\n
Lowry began with a bogey at the 10th and it only got worse from there. He inexplicably found the water off the tee at 17, making a double, and three more bogeys came on his back nine.<\/p>\n
Fleetwood has not got going at Aronimink and three bogeys on his front nine ended any hopes.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Scheffler was the big name among a seven-way tie for the lead – the first time he has led after an opening round of a major in his career – as the second day began in south-west Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
German Martin Kaymer, bidding to recapture major glory 12 years on from the last of his two successes, was part of that group but five bogeys in his first seven holes soon put pay to that.<\/p>\n
Scheffler started on the back nine, alongside Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Rose who were both level par.<\/p>\n
It was a tough start for the group as Rose double-bogeyed the opener after needing two attempts to escape a fairway bunker, with Scheffler and Fitzpatrick both starting with a dropped shot.<\/p>\n
Rose hit back with a birdie at 12 but Scheffler was tumbling with back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13.<\/p>\n
The European duo each suffered a double-bogey nightmare on the long par-3 14th, Fitzpatrick needing four putts to get it down while Rose paid the price for a miscued chip as he slumped to five over.<\/p>\n
Scheffler was back in the red numbers after a stunning tee shot at 17 left him with a tap-in birdie, while a birdie on 16 dragged Rose back to four under.<\/p>\n
Former US Open champion Fitzpatrick is one of the world’s most in-form players, with three PGA Tour wins this season, but he struggled to contend at Augusta last month and cut a dejected figure as he watched more major hopes go up in smoke.<\/p>\n
The Sheffield star ditched a beanie hat for a cap and he reached the turn at one over after back-to-back birdies, before another at one had him on the charge.<\/p>\n
It took Scheffler until the 18th – his ninth hole – to find a fairway as the players battled breezy conditions and a course which was posing a major challenge.<\/p>\n
A hole behind, American Alex Smalley – who was among the tie at the top after day one – nudged the lead to five under with birdies on 16 and 18.<\/p>\n
That lasted one hole, as three bogeys in a row brought him crashing back to earth.<\/p>\n
Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama’s 67 matched the best round of the championship as he moved into a share of the clubhouse lead at three under.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry was among a string of European stars who came close to elimination on the second day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-486677","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116580790202835301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}