Justin Thomas falls out of Open Championship contention with quintuple bogey 9

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TORONTO, Ont. – Scottie Scheffler hopes the old trope, “it’s not how you start but how you finish” will come to fruition this week at the RBC Canadian Open. The FedExCup leader shot a 3-under 67 Friday at St. George’s Golf and Country Club after an opening-round 69. His Thursday score came after he made bogeys on No’s 1 and 2 and was immediately behind the eight ball. But thanks to a nifty chip-in on the par-3 16th late Thursday and starting with three straight birdies on Friday, he is firmly in the mix for his fifth PGA TOUR title of the season. “I feel like my game is in a decent spot right now and so if I just kind of keep doing what I’m doing, not overreact to things,” said Scheffler of his first round. “It’s definitely frustrating, but just kind of stayed in it and I had a chance to turn in a really good score yesterday afternoon and I finished with two bogeys too.” “Other than the start and the finish, yesterday was a great round,” he added with a smile. Scheffler has been dominating the par fives so far this week, shooting 6-under on those holes alone through two rounds. “Today they all came in the beginning of the round and so kind of had to come out of the gates firing,” said Scheffler, who is 7th on TOUR in Par 5 Scoring Average this season. “It’s definitely good to be able to take advantage of those.” Two weeks ago, Scheffler and Sam Burns dueled it out in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge with Burns emerging as the victor. Burns trails Scheffler buy about 1,000 points in the FedExCup standings, sitting number two in the season-long race. This week at the RBC Canadian Open – where they’re both making their tournament debuts – they were paired together for the first two rounds. And appropriately, they’re tied through 36 holes as well. Burns shot a 1-under 69 on Friday and the pair is at 4 under heading into the weekend. Neither golfer lost too much ground on the early leaders – something both Burns and Scheffler were happy about. “It’s just difficult to shoot a really low number,” said Burns of St. George’s Golf and Country Club. “I think if you can just kind of plot your way around this place and shoot 2- or 3-under every day you’re going to have a really good chance.” Scheffler, who missed the cut at the PGA Championship, came to Canada after a rest at home last week. He and Burns both said they liked playing the week before a major to get set for the challenge to come. And Scheffler said the way St. George’s was set up was a solid pre-exam. “I kind of like playing into those events. So for me getting a good prep week here where I can get some practice in and the golf course is somewhat similar is really helpful,” he said. “I think for me I prefer to play the week before, especially an event like this. It hasn’t happened in a couple years, and I know the Canadian fans are really excited for us to be here this week, we’re all excited to play,” added Burns. Scheffler and Burns both said the golf course has risen to the occasion as a challenging layout, especially around the greens. The rough, Scheffler said, is up. And the greens, with a lot of pitch in them, are making birdies hard to come by. “There’s definitely a lot of slope (in the greens). I would say these aren’t as fast as Augusta, but there’s definitely a lot of pitch in them,” said Scheffler. “Even when you hit a really good shot, you’re kind of stuck in a position where you got a putt that has just a ton of movement. It’s definitely a challenging course.” But Scheffler has made tricky golf courses look easy all season long, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he finishes off another week with aplomb. Burns, though, will be right there – as he has been frequently of late.

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