British Open: Scottie Scheffler makes charge with 64, leads by one

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — The rain pounded Royal Portrush right when Scottie Scheffler poured in a birdie putt on his first hole Friday in the British Open. No matter. Nothing stopped the world's No. 1 player on his way to a 7-under 64 that gave him a one-shot lead going into the weekend. Scheffler made eight birdies on another wild afternoon of weather at Royal Portrush, and his 15-foot birdie attempt on the 18th stopped inches short. The result was a one-shot lead over former U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who made four straight birdies to start the back nine until he cooled on the home stretch and had to settle for a 66. The scoring was nearly two shots lower than the opening round. Except for a few chasers, Scheffler made it look like it wasn't enough. He is at 10-under 132 as he chases the third leg of the career Grand Slam, having won the PGA Championship by five shots in May. Brian Harman got the best stretch of weather — surprising sunshine — and took dead aim in his hunt for another claret jug. Harman played bogey-free for a 64 that left him two shots behind, along with Li Haotong of China, who had a 67. Everyone else is five shots behind or more. That includes Rory McIlroy, who went around Royal Portrush in his native Northern Ireland with plenty of cheers but only a few roars. McIlroy had a 69 but lost a lot of ground because of Scheffler, Fitzpatrick and Harman. Fitzpatrick was at his lowest point just four months ago when he changed his caddie and coach and began pulling himself up. Now he takes that into the weekend against Scheffler. "He's going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He's an exceptional player. He's world No. 1, and we're seeing Tiger-like stuff," Fitzpatrick said. "I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament. For me, obviously I hope I'm going to have some more home support than him, but it's an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year." Fitzpatrick was rolling along until missing a pair of short putts, from 5 feet for par on the 14th and 3 feet for birdie on the 17th. Even so, he holed a 25-foot par putt on the final hole to assure himself of being in the last group at 9-under 133. Scheffler was sharp from the start. He hit eight of the 14 fairways — compared with three in the opening round — and his misses never left him too badly out of position. None of his eight birdies were closer than 7 feet. Five were in the 10-foot range and he threw in a 35-foot birdie on the sixth. His lone bogey came on a drive into deep grass on the 11th that kept him from reaching the green. The statistics led to a shrug. "Overall, I'm hitting the ball solid," Scheffler said. "The tournament is only halfway done. I got off to a good start." Harman was called the "Butcher of Hoylake" when he won the claret jug at Royal Liverpool two years ago because the British press was fascinated by the Georgia native's love for hunting. Now it's about his golf, and it was superb. "They're very different golf courses, but the golf is similar," Harman said. "You've got to be able to flight your golf ball. You've got to know how far everything's going. Then you can't get frustrated. You're going to end up in funny spots where it doesn't seem fair, and you just have to kind of outlast that stuff." The group at 5-under 137 included Harris English (70), Harman's former teammate at Georgia; Tyrrell Hatton of England (69) and Chris Gotterup (65), who wasn't even planning to be at Royal Portrush until winning the Scottish Open last week.