‘Just one of those days’ - Scheffler ten behind again after another slow PGA Tour start

World number one Scottie Scheffler reckons he needs some help from the weather now after getting off to a slow start on the PGA Tour for the second week running in the $20 million AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

The Texan could only manage a level par 72 in his opening round at Pebble Beach and finds himself ten strokes behind Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune, who shot a 62 to lead by a stroke from Keegan Bradley and Sam Burns, who also played the host course.

“I feel like typically I'm good at scoring and today I felt like I didn’t score at all,” said Scheffler, who finished joint third in last week’s WM Phoenix Open despite opening with a two-over 73 that also left him ten shots off the pace.

“Like anything that kind of went wrong seemed to be going that direction, and I just felt like I scored poorly. I actually feel like I'm playing pretty well, just one of those days.”

While he bounced back to contend for victory last week at TPC Scottsdale, Scheffler believes he will need

help from the weather after 61 players took advantage of perfect conditions on the Monterey Peninsula to break par last night.

“I think it's a little bit easier to do around that golf course versus this one the way the scores are shaping up to be,” he said of the difference between his comeback in Phoenix and the task he faces this week, where players play one round each at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill before taking on Pebble Beach for the final two rounds.

“But around these places, you never know what the weather's going to turn out to be like. I'll need a little bit of help up there from the weather.

“If we get a few more [fine and sunny] days like this, it's going to be pretty tough for me to be able to catch up. You know, overall, go out there tomorrow on Spyglass and see what I can do.”

Scheffler goes into tonight’s second round tied for 62nd while Shane Lowry heads to Spyglass Hill in joint 19th after he hit his irons brilliantly and opened with a five-under 67 at Pebble Beach.

Rory McIlroy is tied for 28th on four-under, despite three-putting twice in the space of three holes for double bogeys en route to a four-under 68 at Spyglass Hill.

In Australia, Jon Rahm fired a nine-under 63 to take the halfway lead in LIV Adelaide at The Grange Golf Club.

The Spaniard made approximately 151 feet of putts as he made an eagle and seven birdies to lead by a shot on 13-under par from New Zealand’s Ben Campbell, who also shot 63.

“I can’t remember the last time I made this many, but it was a lot – and the ones that didn’t go in looked like they were going to go in,” Rahm said of his putting.

“It was a fantastic day on the greens.”

Bryson DeChambeau carded a 67 to sit alone in third, but Graeme McDowell’s level par 72 left him joint 25th on four-under.

Rahm’s Legion XIII teammate Tom McKibbin followed his opening 74 with a 68 to move up to 37th on two under.

RangeGoats GC (BubbaWatson, Ben Campbell, Peter Uihlein and Matthew Wolff) and 4 Aces GC (Dustin Johnson, Thomas Detry, Anthony Kim and Thomas Pieters) lead the team standings by a shot on 23 under from Legion XIII, Ripper GC and Torque GC.