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Xander Schauffele takes a one-shot lead into the third round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions.
On Friday he carded five birdies en route to a 5-under 68 to grab the lead over Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann.
Schauffele is 9 under entering Saturday’s third round. He kept a clean scorecard Friday at the Kapalua Plantation Course, recording birdies on two of his final three holes to steal the lead from the 21-year-old Niemann.
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Niemann shot a 66 on Thursday to take the first-round lead, but shot 1-under 72 in the second round after bogeying holes 5 and 13. Schauffele shot an opening-round 66.
The defending champion and only player bogey-free player in the 34-man field, Schauffele battled through difficult conditions in Lahaina, Hawaii Friday which included strong winds and sporadic rain.
After his round, Schauffele was asked if he could have predicted the leader would lead a 9 under through 36 holes before the event began.
“I couldn’t tell you. You know, I didn’t know this was going to roll in today,” Schauffele said. “I thought the T0ur was nice with the pin positions, over under 18-ish. I’ve heard 15, I’ve heard 20. But I think this weather kind of keeps up and the wind keeps up, it’s not going to be a shootout.”
Schauffele, who won the event last year by one shot at 23 under, also noted the changes to the course over the past year.
“Besides looking the same and looking over at Molokai, very different. Hitting longer clubs, different lines, different reads on the greens,” Schauffele said. “We’re on the same property, but for the most part there’s no memory I can fall back on when it comes to making a putt or hitting a bump-and-run shot on a certain hole since the green layouts are very different. They happen to be in the same spot, but the surfaces aren’t the same.”
The 26-year-old from La Jolla, California, is looking for his first win since last year’s win in Kapalua. Since the win — his fourth on Tour — Schauffele finished second at the 2019 Masters Tournament, T-3 at the U.S. Open and second at the Tour Championship. This season, Schauffele finished second at the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions in November, the same event he won in 2019.
Schauffele tees off alongside Patrick Reed in Saturday’s third round at 3:40 p.m. ET.
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