Atlanta (USA), Aug 31 (PTI) Indian-American Sahith Theegala carded a 5-under 66 to be in tied-fourth place at the halfway stage of the PGA Tour Championship here.

With 67-66, he is 12-under for two rounds, including his three starting strokes as per the event’s norms.

Theegala shares the fourth spot along with Adam Scott and Wyndham Clark, who are all at 12-under including their starting strokes.

The other Indian-American, Akshay Bhatia, who started the week with a 2-under, added rounds of 70-69 and was placed T-21 with an aggregate of 5-under, while Indo-British golfer Aaron Rai, who started at even par, has had rounds of 66-70 and is placed tied-18 with a score of 6-under.

The field is led by Scottie Scheffler, who started at 10-under and has had rounds of 65-66. He is currently 21-under.

At the Tour Championship, leading players get starting strokes based on their finish in the FedExCup standings at the BMW Championships, the second Play-offs event. This is the sixth year of the Tour Championship’s handicapped format.

Scheffler started the week at East Lake with a two-stroke lead on Xander Schauffele and a 10-stroke lead over Justin Thomas, the last man in the field at No. 30 in the standings.

So, Scheffler started at 10-under and Schauffele started at 8-under and Hideki Matsuyama at 7-under. Theegala started at 3-under and then added 4-under 67 and 5-under 66 to get to 12-under.

Theegala’s round included two spurts, once between the fifth and the ninth holes, when he had three birdies, and then between the 14th and the 16th, when he holed three birdies in a row. In between, he bogeyed the 10th and 11th in his 66, that followed a 67 in the first round.

Having started at 2-under, Scheffler was once again in superb form as he had clinical tee-to-green show for a 5-under 66 and a four-shot lead at the Tour Championship.

Collin Morikawa (63) and Schauffele (64) made some ground, but Scheffler looked in command. There was a 93-minute storm delay.

Schauffele finished with a pair of 12-foot putts — one for par and one for birdie for a 64.

Scheffler, who started the event with a two-shot lead over the No. 2 Schauffele, enjoyed a seven-shot lead at the start of the second day. He returned from the storm delay with a pair of birdies over his final three holes and reached 21-under par. Morikawa was at 17 under and Schauffele was another shot behind.

Scheffler has a chance to win the FedExCup and its USD25 million prize, which he failed to do as the top seed in the past two years.

Source: PTI News