Scheffler, in a 2025 debut delayed by minor surgery on his right hand for a freak puncture wound while making ravioli, ran off three straight birdies, including a shot to 2 feet on the tough eighth hole. That was the last of his birdies, but it was the par that saved him.

Rory McIlroy knows he will need to hit the birdie trail this weekend as he finds himself six shots behind leader Sepp Straka at the halfway stage of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.