Scheffler hits front as McIlroy rallies in Houston

Second-round leaderboard for Houston Open

-11 S Scheffler (US), -10 T Pendrith (Can), N Echavarria (Col), -9 M-W Lee (Aus), R Gerard (US), -8 J Suber (US), T Mullinax

Selected others: -7 R Hojgaard (Den), -4 R McIlroy (NI), H Hall (Eng), -3 D Skinns (Eng), -2 D Willett (Eng), M Wallace (Eng), S Power (Ire)

Not all players have advanced to the second round.

With eight birdies and no bogeys, Scheffler set the tone for the tournament, taking advantage of Memorial Park’s best of the early conditions before thunderstorms caused play to be halted.

On par with Colombian Nico Echavarria, who was nine under for the day but faced a chip from the green on the 17th when bad light prevented play, is Canadian Taylor Pendrith, who is a shot back on 10 under.

Danny Willett and Matt Wallace, both from England, are both one shot under the projected cut line, while McIlroy carded a 66 to finish the day and the tournament at four under.

They waited for the second round to end in the hopes that they would play over the weekend, which is scheduled to resume on Saturday at 13:30 GMT.

After putting in a number of smart putts in his final round of birdies, McIlroy was unconcerned of these issues.

The Northern Ireland player’s round was delayed for two hours as the rains came to an end and darkness was falling.

He improved from his level-par opening round, which he called “pedestrian,” but he still fell further behind, seven shots clear of Scheffler.

McIlroy said, “I holed a few putts.” That was it, I thought. A few putts went in and were nice to see finished.

At the conclusion, it was a little hazy there. Nice to finish the round the same way I did.

Scheffler, however, posted his best game since returning from a hand injury over the Christmas holiday.

As he prepares to defend his US Masters title in April, he continues to be bogey-free for his first 36 holes, charging to the front after putting together an opening three-under 67.