2024 Charles Schwab Challenge scores: Jordan Spieth, Scottie Scheffler jump back in contention during Round 2

Isn’t it funny what a quick trip back home can do for the game? After coming out of the gates at the 2024 Charles Schwab Challenge, the two local boys – Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler – got back into the mix with rounds on 60s Friday at the newly renovated Colonial Country Club.

Spieth shot a 3-under 67 to move to 2-under for the tournament, and Scheffler shot a 5-under 65 to pull away from his fellow Longhorn, but the two got their final scores in varying ways. As it stands, the pair are safely in the top pages of the leaderboard, with Sungjae Im and Keegan Bradley leading the way at just 6 under.

The festivities started early and often in Spieth’s case, as the 2016 champion holed in a 25-foot birdie on the par-4 10th to start his round. A successful up-and-down on No. 11 led to another before a birdie bomb from outside 40 feet hit the bottom of the cup on the next.

Spieth quickly moved from par to the first page of the leaderboard and nearly took the lead when his approach on the par-4 15th stopped just inches short of the cup to set up his fifth birdie of the morning. With a lot of runway still ahead of him, the 30-year-old seemed interested in posting something special as he turned 5 under 30.

A par 5 awaited Spieth at the turn, and after splitting the fairway with the big stick, a bad long iron left him in a difficult position in the greenside bunker, where he was ultimately unable to get up and down for his sixth birdie. In fact, birdie No. 6 never arrived for Spieth; he did not put another circle on his scorecard and instead added two squares to come home at 2-37.

Spieth’s performance is especially frustrating given that he consistently places himself in the center of the field. In a strange twist, Spieth’s game is no longer driven by his swing, his short game or even his nifty wedge game — all of which have hindered him at some point this year — but rather by his driver. Long and straight off the tee, Spieth looks close to finding and putting together the rest of the pieces, and there may be no better way for him to do that than Colonial.

As Spieth powered through his first nine years en route to his subpar round, Scheffler settled into his day. He showed some frustration on the greens when he misread his birdie putt at No. 11, but recovered when he holed a 15-footer for his first birdie of the round at No. 13.

Similar to Spieth, Scheffler’s iron play held him back as he couldn’t figure out the first bounce onto the putting surfaces. Leaving his approach shots 30 to 40 feet short in the early stages of his round, the frustration that gripped Scheffler on the greens extended to the irons.

However, as the world No. 1 so often does, he adjusted and figured things out. A wedge at the 18th left him with a tap-in birdie to turn 2 under, starting a streak of four consecutive birdies in which the longest putt he hit was just 3 feet. The iron game came back with a vengeance and propelled the game’s best player to near the top of the leaderboard in Fort Worth.

With the middle of the round defined by the scoring clubs, Scheffler took advantage of his short game at the end to secure his bogey-free shot. An up-and-down from the greenside bunker at No. 8 after a poor tee shot kept the 27-year-old at 3 under, and he would do better next when his par chip-in attempt fell to put in a curve- if in your 65.

After opening with over-par rounds, Spieth and Scheffler signed with red numbers on Friday to put them in position once again at one of their hometown events. Spieth, already a winner here, is looking for his first victory in more than two years; Scheffler, already runner-up here, is looking for his fifth win of the season. Although different in the context of each career, a victory at the Colonial would be a huge step forward for both, just as their performance in the second round contributed greatly to their tournament aspirations.