It’s going to be a good weekend at East Lake.
The stars are in the thick of it with Brooks Kopeka, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele set up for a four-man Battle Royale for the FedEx Cup.
At the halfway mark, Koepka will take a one-shot lead into moving day after a pair of 67s have put him alone at the top by just a shot at 13-under par. He’ll play in the final pairing with Justin Thomas, who lost his chance to tie for the lead when he blew his approach at the 17th about 20 yards over the green and took three to get down. He still had a great chance to tie Koepka but failed to birdie the par five 18th, leaving Brooks with the lead.
McIlroy inserted himself into the hunt with a birdie-birdie finish and is in the next-to-last pairing with Xander Schauffele. Schauffele struggled for most of the day and found himself one-over coming to 18. After a nice drive left him 230 out, his second settled inside 24 feet and he’d hole that putt for a closing eagle that got him under par for the round (69), and left him solo fourth at 11-under par.
Koepka, McIlroy, Thomas and Schauffele are the only players in double-digits under par as East Lake became more difficult on Friday. Only low score of the day was a 64 by Chez Reavie and he had to produce a hole-in-one at the 230-yard par three ninth to get there. Didn’t help him much, he’s six-under and seven back of Koepka.
Patrick Cantlay fell by the wayside after his 71 left him six back of the lead.
