The second round of the 2025 Travelers Championship saw TPC River Highlands play far more difficult than usual thanks to strong winds that pushed the average score on course over par Friday. Justin Thomas and Denny McCarthy handled the blustery conditions in Connecticut the best, posting matching 6-under 64s to make big moves up the leaderboard as the 18-hole leaders struggled to put distance between themselves and the rest of the field.
Thomas shot up into a tie for first with Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood at 9 under, while McCarthy hung two back. Between them sits Jason Day, whose matching 66s across the first two rounds have him in contention for his first PGA Tour victory in two years.
Thomas did much of his damage on the back nine as he made five consecutive birdies from the 11th to the 15th. He made more than 146 feet of putts ion Friday, riding a hot putter to one of the best rounds of the day while avoiding mistakes tee-to-green despite the whipping winds.
After his round, Thomas spoke about how the conditions played to his strengths in terms of shot-shaping and shot-making, noting there’s no such thing as a stock shot in 20+ mph winds.
“I think it’s why I have had some good rounds in conditions like this because I can’t really play golf swing, I have to play more golf,” Thomas said. “I can’t be over the ball thinking about what it’s like here and if I’m getting this way or weight one way or another. If the wind is blowing 25 or 30 off my left shoulder, I need to figure out how to make it not go right and I need to keep it lower than this apex, and it’s just all feel. Really there’s something to be said for that, and I just need to do a better job of doing that when it’s blowing 5 miles an hour and not 35 miles an hour.”
Heading into the weekend, winds are supposed to settle back down into the 5-10 mph range. That’ll provide more scoring opportunities with Thomas perhaps standing as the only man in the field not thrilled to see winds calm down.
Fleetwood made a similar run up the leaderboard Friday shooting a 65 to surge into the co-lead. He similarly made his move on the back nine, but where Thomas strung together five birdies in a row, Fleetwood opted for a more efficient attack by making a pair of eagles on Nos. 13 and 15 before tacking on another birdie on No. 16.
In the wind, Fleetwood’s ball-striking is a weapon, and he hit some lasers out there int he afternoon to pierce through the gusts. One of his finest swings came on the 18th as he had 234 yards in to the par 4 after clipping a tree off the tee and fired a fairway wood to 12 feet away, setting up an easy two-putt par.
For the second straight day, Scheffler remains tied for the lead, but the 2025 PGA champion missed an opportunity to take full control of the tournament going into the weekend. Scheffler was 11 under going to the 17th tee but once again stumbled on the penultimate hole. After finding the fairway bunker off the tee, he came up short in the water with his second, leading to a double bogey that dropped him back into a share for the lead with Thomas.
Even with that misstep, Scheffler is pleased with the way he played on Friday, noting he hit just about every shot how he wanted, he just didn’t always get the results he desired.
“I played really nice again today,” Scheffler said. “I bogeyed 6 early. I had a weird lie on the second shot and kind of chunked it. After that I hit each shot the way I wanted to, just didn’t get the results from it. Outside of that, I felt like I played pretty well. It was very challenging out there with the wind gusts.”
That mindset is important in conditions like players faced on Friday, as the guessing game with the wind — when you’ll get a gust or when it might lay down — can drive players crazy. Scheffler keeps his focus on the process and felt like he hit the ball similarly to his Thursday 62, but the conditions were just tougher to score in. Now he’ll head to a weekend where calm conditions should provide more chances, and he showed on Thursday that can lead to really low scores.
The leaders
1. Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood (-9): Given the conditions are supposed to return to what they were on Thursday, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone has jumped this trio on the leaderboard by the time they tee off in the final pairings on Saturday. That might help them get into an attacking mindset early, as they’ll have a good idea of what the scoring pace will be based on how the morning wave handles TPC River Highlands.
Contenders
4. Jason Day (-8)
T5. Denny McCarthy, Austin Eckroat (-7)
T7. Nick Taylor, Keegan Bradley (-6)
T9. Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and two others (-5)
Day’s afternoon was overshadowed by what Fleetwood did just behind him, but for the second straight day, the Aussie put up a 66 to move himself one off the lead. McCarthy’s 64 matched Thomas for the round of the day as he moved himself 31 spots up the leaderboard and into the top 5 with one of the best ball-striking rounds; in classic McCarthy style, he also holed over 100 feet of putts.
Eckroat held the 18-hole co-lead with Scheffler but stalled out in the tough conditions with a 71. Still, he is in contention going into the weekend as he looks for his first top-10 finish of the season. Keegan Bradley and Rory McIlroy were also a big part of the story coming into the day just two off the lead, but after feeding off positive vibes together Thursday, neither could get much going on Friday in the high winds.
Bradley tread water with an even-par 70, while McIlroy dropped a shot with a 71, including a bogey on the 17th that could’ve been much worse as he thinned his approach out of the bunker, skipped his ball through the water and ended up in the fairway left of the green.
As conditions improve going into the weekend, anyone within a few shots of the lead will feel good about their chances to post some low scores and give themselves a chance at the win. The question will be whether Scheffler opens the door enough for someone to pass him. As we saw on Thursday, he can take it low at TPC River Highlands as well, and it may take something extremely special on the weekend for someone off the pace currently to catch and pass him for the Travelers Championship.
2025 Travelers Championship updated live odds, picks
Odds via BetMGM
- Scottie Scheffler (11/10)
- Justin Thomas (11/2)
- Tommy Fleetwood (11/2)
- Jason Day (14-1)
- Rory McIlroy (16-1)
- Keegan Bradley (25-1)
- Denny McCarthy (28-1)
Considering you were laying money to take Scheffler on Thursday night, the suddenly tight leaderboard at the top has created an interesting live betting market. I like Thomas more than Fleetwood of the pair tied with Scheffler, as he spoke after his round about having a great feel for the green speeds at TPC River Highlands, which is why he’s rolling in so many putts. That seems transferable through the weekend and we saw at the RBC Heritage earlier in the year that a shorter course that doesn’t demand he hit driver constantly is good for him.
There’s also some value to be had on Day at 14-1 as he’s been steady with a pair of 66s so far in both easy and difficult conditions, and he seems very comfortable out there. I don’t foresee him backing up, and if Scheffler stalls at all on the weekend, Day could certainly pass him. All of this is moot if Scheffler can replicate his Thursday 62, but he certainly opened the door for plenty of others to contend this week with a solid but unspectacular second round.
This news was originally published on this post .
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