Fleetwood, Thomas and Scheffler share PGA Travelers lead
NEW YORK - England's Tommy Fleetwood made two eagles and a birdie in the last six holes Friday to grab a share of the lead with top-ranked Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas at the PGA Travelers Championship.
Thomas reeled off five consecutive birdies in firing a six-under par 64 while Fleetwood shot 65 and Scheffler fired a 69 to all stand on nine-under 131 for 36 holes at windy TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut.
Paris Olympic runner-up Fleetwood, ranked 17th, matched his season-low round. He has seven European Tour wins but seeks his first PGA Tour victory.
Fleetwood eagled the par-five 13th after reaching the green in two and sinking a putt from just inside 10 feet, then chipped in at the par-four 14th for eagle from the fairway from just inside 90 feet.
"Would have been happy walking off with two birdies," Fleetwood said. "But two eagles was a big bonus."
A 12-foot birdie putt at the par-three 16th gave him a share of the lead.
"It happened really quick. You don't expect two eagles in three holes," he said. "You don't really look for those things to happen.
"I played really well. Felt like I did a great job of scrapping on the front nine then played well on the back nine."
Fifth-ranked Thomas, a two-time major winner, opened the back nine with a bogey then birdied the next five holes.
The last two in the run, at the 14th and 15th, were from just beyond 26 feet each.
"I was very patient. I hit a lot of really good iron shots. I felt like I was in good control," Thomas said.
"I didn't feel like I drove it very well. I kept it in play and kept it in front of me, which is a big part of it, but I just kept it out of trouble. Finally made some putts on that back nine. It was nice."
Scheffler, who won his third major title at last month's PGA Championship, stumbled back with a double bogey at 17, plunking his second shot into the water.
"I played really nice," Scheffler said. "Had a weird lie on the second shot and kind of chunked it. After that I hit each shot the way I wanted, 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."
Scheffler made a bogey at the par-five sixth after missing the green with his approach but responded with birdies at the seventh on a putt from just inside seven feet and the ninth from just inside 10 feet.
At the par-five 13th, Scheffler reached the green in two and two-putted for birdie from 24 feet to grab the solo lead, then sank a birdie putt from just inside 17 feet.
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