ORLANDO, Fla. — Shane Lowry loves the grind of a strong test, and it’s showing at Bay Hill. He had six birdies Friday in slightly tamer conditions for a 5-under 67, giving him a two-shot lead going into the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
It wasn’t as cold as the day before. The wind was minimal. Bay Hill still had some bite, as Wyndham Clark, Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele showed at various times.
Lowry, playing alongside good friend Rory McIlroy, holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the 13th and closed with an 18-foot birdie to lead by two over Clark.
Corey Conners (70) and Collin Morikawa (68) were three shots behind, followed by Russell Henley (68), McIlroy (70) and Jason Day, who has reunited with longtime coach Colin Swatton and posted a 64 for the lowest score of the tournament.
“I think it’s my iron play is good, and conservative when it needs to be,” Lowry said in explaining why he enjoys a tough test. “I just like the grind of ‘pars are good,’ you know? There’s a lot of weeks out here where you shoot level par for nine holes and you feel like you’re beating your head against the wall. Whereas weeks like this, level par after nine, you’re actually doing OK. You’re a run away from having a lovely day.
“I like the type of golf where any time you break 70 you feel like you’ve had a good day.”
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Lowry was at 8-under 136, the only player in the field to break 70 both days.
Eighteen players remained under par going into the weekend, and Scheffler was happy to be one of them. He had a rough time on the front nine, particularly a three-putt for double bogey on the par-3 second hole when he missed a 30-inch putt.
Scheffler, the defending champion, was bogey-free on the back nine, taking two putts for birdies on the par 5s and finishing with a 15-foot birdie for a 72. He was seven behind.
Clark was sailing along beautifully, going one shot ahead when Lowry made a soft bogey on the par-5 16th by missing a 4-foot par putt. That didn’t last long. Clark hit his drive out of bounds on the 15th and had to make a 20-foot putt to escape with double bogey.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever fist-pumped a double bogey,” Clark said. “I was pissed off with the tee shot, and I knew it was important to keep the momentum. Any shot is important. I don’t fist-pump that much, but to me it just was more of like an internal thing like ‘Let’s go!’ And gave me kind of some momentum for the last three holes.”
Schauffele had back-to-back double bogeys and answered with three birdies in the next four holes. He wound up with a 71 and was 12 shots out of the lead, but the double major champion could claim a small victory by making his 58th consecutive cut dating to the 2022 Masters.
Schauffele is playing for the first time since The Sentry at Kapalua to start the year, taking time off to heal an intercostal strain and slight tear to the cartilage in his right rib. He wasn’t expecting an immediate return to great golf. He wasn’t wanting to leave on Friday, either.
Austin Kaiser, his caddie, joked that Schauffele only needed four more years to catch the record of 142 made cuts in a row by Tiger Woods from February 1998 to May 2005.
It’s no less impressive. The streak is the sixth longest in PGA Tour history behind Woods, Byron Nelson (113), Jack Nicklaus (105), Hale Irwin (86) and Dow Finsterwald (72).
“Austin and I are proud of our cut streak, no doubt,” Schauffele said. “Is it what we think about? No. But usually when you focus on winning you make a lot of cuts and end up somewhere in between.”
Justin Thomas took a double bogey from the bunker on the par-3 14th that slowed his momentum, though he recovered with two birdies on the last three holes for a 70. He was in the group five shots behind that included Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley (72).
Clark shared the 36-hole lead at Bay Hill a year ago and finished second. Lowry shared the 54-hole lead with Scheffler and finished third. Last year was the first time Lowry and Clark broke 70 at Bay Hill, so they appear to have figured something out.
That doesn’t guarantee much.
“It’s funny, when you have success — especially on a difficult place like this — it doesn’t mean you come here the next year and you have a God-given right to go and play well,” Lowry said. “You still need to play your game and execute. So I was conscious of that. Even though today’s conditions were a lot easier than yesterday, this golf course still doesn’t give you anything.
“I guess when you start to see a few good shots around here and you start to see a few putts going in it makes it a bit easier.”
The real grind came at the end of the day. The 36-hole cut to top 50 and ties was at 4-over 148, and a few players were right on the bubble. Lucas Glover was one shot below the line when he holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 16th and chipped in from just off the green at the 17th.
Max McGreevy was two shots below the cut line and responded with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 15th, a two-putt birdie on the 16th and an 18-foot par putt on the 17th.
That leaves 51 players from the 72-man field, all of them chasing Lowry.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
