Scheffler (65) entered the weekend in the top positions in Memphis

Scottie Schefflerworld number 1, current champion of Masters and recent Olympic gold in Parisentering the weekend perfectly placed on St. Jude Championship of Memphis (USA)first of three contests of FedEx Cup playoffswith the eventual champion pocketing an extraordinary financial bonus of 25 million dollars, about 23 million euros.

The American, the main favorite to win the special prize, completed two sensational rounds (66-65) that put him in 4th place, just two strokes behind the co-leaders, the his countryman Denny McCarthy (66-63) and the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama (65-64), with a total of 129 strokes (-11) at the halfway point of the tournament.

The leader at the end of the first day on Thursday was also the American Chris Kirkwho made a hole-in-one on the 14th from 187 meters before returning an opening card of 64.

Only the top 70 on the PGA Tour will compete in St. Jude Championship, then the top 50 will advance to BMW Championship (August 22-25) and only the top-30 will fight for the final bonus in Tour Championship (August 29-September 1).

St. Jude Championship

2nd day

Par 70
129 Hideki Matsuyama (Japanese) 65-64
Denny McCarthy (USA) 66-63
130 Sam Burns (USA) 67-63
131 Scottie Scheffler (USA) 66-65
132 Nick Dunlap (USA) 67-65
Justin Rose (Eng) 66-66
133 Viktor Hovland (North) 70-63
…
135 Xander Schauffele (USA/13th) 66-69
136 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng/20th) 66-70
137 Justin Thomas (USA/28th) 67-70
139 Collin Morikawa (USA/43rd) 68-71
​141 Rory McIlroy (Irl. N./56th) 68-73
143 Jordan Spieth (USA/65th) 68-75