2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson: Scottie Scheffler stays hot through rain delay holding firm atop leaderboard with 63

One of the most significant talking points at the midpoint of the 2025 PGA Tour season has been the lack of wins for the world’s No. 1 player. Despite posting five top 10s in his eight starts — finishing inside the top 25 in all of them — Scottie Scheffler has yet to win on the PGA Tour this year. 

That is rather shocking given the way he dominated the golf world a year ago, winning seven times on the PGA Tour and adding an Olympic gold medal to his resume. It certainly appears as though he is ready to break his 2025 drought while playing at home in Dallas as he is lighting up the TPC Craig Ranch course through two rounds. 

Scheffler took a two-shot lead into Friday’s second round after posting a 10-under 61, and he now enters Moving Day six clear of the pack after a second-round 63 places him 18 under heading into the weekend.

It took a while for Sceffler to get going after opening Round 2 with eight straight pars, but an eagle on the par-5 18th (his ninth hole) got him rolling. Shortly after he hit his drive on No. 1, the horn blew for what would become a delay of 6 hours, 15 minutes amid area storms that drenched the course. 

When action resumed, Scheffler picked up right where he left off with a birdie on the 1st, as he once again shredded the front nine at TPC Craig Ranch. He backed that up with birdies on Nos. 2, 5, 6 and 7, including a near hole-out as he danced the ball around the cup on the 6th. 

Scheffler taked an additional birdie on the card at the par-5 9th to post 63 and hang a ridiculous number on the leaderboard. If you only took his front-nine scores through the first two days, he’d still be the leader by one as he’s gone 13 under just on the front, which is preposterous. His 134 strokes through 36 holes is the second-lowest total in PGA Tour history, per Justin Ray, trailing only Justin Thomas at the 2017 Sony Open. Thomas and the three others to post 134 through two rounds all went on to win those respective weeks. 

Scheffler has been solid but not spectacular on the greens (25th in strokes gained putting), which is an indicator of how immense his tee-to-green game has been this week. That remains his strength, but it has been incredible to watch how well he’s hitting the ball. The golfing world has been waiting all year for that first real sustained performance at the level of the 2024 version of Scottie that was a buzzsaw, and after a lot of tournaments where we’d see a glimpse for a round, it looks like he might be back to that form after the best back-to-back rounds of his season. 

Now, he will have a long wait holding the clubhouse lead as the third round will not begin until Saturday afternoon. 

The Friday afternoon wave of tee times are all still waiting to even begin their second rounds. That includes nine players at 6 under or better who will be looking to close the gap at least a bit on Scheffler and push him to keep his incredible scoring pace through the weekend. 

The scoring conditions on Saturday morning should be ideal, as the winds are expected to be minimal (5 mph) and the course will be soft with preferred lies in play. Even so, Scheffler has run out to such a huge lead that it will take something truly special to catch up with him. Sam Stevens (-12) enters Saturday in second, six back of Scheffler, standing as the only other player to reach double digits under par through two days of action.

The other subplot of Saturday morning will be the cut line, which figures to be quite low. The cut presently stands at 4 under, but that number will almost assuredly move by a stroke or two once the second round concludes Saturday.

Scheffler’s two playing partners in the featured group of the week, Jordan Spieth and Si Woo Kim, both made birdies on the last on Friday to get to 6 under, which that figures to advance them into the weekend.