Xander Schauffele roars back after ZOZO Championship “meltdown,” gives himself a chance

Xander Schauffele during the ZOZO Championship. | Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Xander Schauffele looked dead in the water after his Thursday blunder. But he has given himself a chance thanks to his strong second round.

Xander Schauffele had a much better day on Friday than Thursday at the ZOZO Championship.

Not only did he celebrate his 31st birthday, but he carded a bogey-free 5-under 65 to move up the leaderboard 28 places. He put Thursday’s self-described “meltdown” behind him, in which he made a quadruple bogey on the 9th hole, and has now given himself an outside chance going into the weekend.

“It was better,” Schauffele said of his second round.

“I mean, besides one hole yesterday, I fed off of a lot of my holes and I probably hit the ball a little bit better [on Friday]. Missed some makeable putts and made some ones I shouldn’t make, so all in all it was a pretty solid day.”

Schauffele is now 2-under for the championship and 10 shots back of Nico Echavarria, who sits atop the leaderboard at 12-under par through 36 holes. The Colombian posted a pair of 64s during his first two rounds.

“It was supposed to be kind of windy and ended up being cloudy and not too windy, so the greens are staying soft,” Schauffele added.

“Your iron shots are kind of hitting and staying wherever you hit ‘em. If you’re hitting the ball nicely you can definitely shoot some low scores. Just got to keep the ball in front of me [on Saturday] and Sunday and try to give myself a chance.”

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.