CROMWELL, Connecticut: Scottie Scheffler had one of those rare rounds where he hit a shot so pure it makes his confidence soar. So many other shots were pretty good, too, and they added to an 8-under 62 to share the lead Thursday with Austin Eckroat in the Travelers Championship.

The week after a rough-and-tumble US Open was a welcome break for so many at the TPC River Highlands, even with the rough just as long (but not quite as thick) as soaked Oakmont.

Rory McIlroy played bogey-free for a 66 and didn’t look to break too much of a sweat.

“This is a nice tonic compared to last week in terms of it’s a slightly more benign golf course and the penalty for missing isn’t quite as severe,” McIlroy said.

Scheffler faced the hot afternoon when a refreshing breeze turned into a strong wind, and he wasted no time getting in the mix with four birdies in six holes and a 30 on the front nine.

And then came the par-5 13th, 236 yards away into the wind, over a pond to a pin on the right. It was perfect — that’s coming from golf’s No. 1 player — and settled 10 feet away for birdie.

“That 3-iron I hit in there was really nice,” Scheffler said. “It was pretty much exactly what I was trying to do. It was kind of one where I had to hit it really solid in order to get it there with the water short, and I just did pretty much exactly what I wanted to and it felt nice.”

McIlroy was at 64 along with Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Wyndham Clark. Another shot back was Cameron Young. He was in the mix late on Sunday at Oakmont, and started the Travelers Championship by going from the rough to the bunker, and then a three-putt from 25 feet for a double bogey.

“I managed to get around Oakmont for four days with no doubles and I made it zero holes here,” Young said. “Typically that’s not kind of what you expect around here.”

Not to worry. He followed with eight birdies in a day with a new routine. His caddie went down with a stomach virus and the best option was to turn the bag over to his father, Dave Young, recently retired as the longtime pro at Sleepy Hollow.

The surprise was Eckroat, already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour but struggling so much this year that he has only two finishes in the top 20 and eight missed cuts. The last two weeks served him well, however, as Eckroat said he figured out how to eliminate the miss to the left.

He played the last six holes in 5-under par, starting with a 35-foot eagle putt on No. 13.

“I wasn’t fearing the left ball today, which is huge, and then whenever you’re feeling comfortable with other things, other things start to fall in line,” Eckroat said. “Felt great over the putter, and just a really solid day, and I felt confident, which it was nice to feel that this season. It’s been a while.”

US Open champion J.J. Spaun felt the fatigue, and the steamy heat didn’t help the cause. Playing along Scheffler, he was hanging in there until it took him two chips and two putts to cover 40 feet for a double bogey on No. 12, and a bogey-bogey finish for a 73.

Jordan Spieth didn’t even make it to the finish line. This was the first time Spieth didn’t need a sponsor exemption for a $20 million signature event, and he only lasted 13 holes when his shoulder blade got tight on the range, spread across the back of his neck to the other side and left him no choice but to withdraw.

Scheffler saying he hit a great shot is worth paying attention to because it doesn’t happen very often. He rarely hits it offline. But this was something special.

“Hit it really solid and really straight, just barely right of the pin, and kept it nice flat flight, get it to go through the wind, and it was good,” he said.

In fact, he could only recall two other shots in recent years — a 6-iron on the fifth hole in the final round at the 2022 Masters, a 9-iron he hit on the par-3 third hole in the final round of the 2023 Players Championship.

“Those are shots that kind of get lost in terms of the tournament,” he said. “I’m not even sure if I birdied No. 3 at The Players, and I know I didn’t birdie No. 5 during the Masters. But those are the shots when you’re playing and you’re in the moment, those are the ones that give me a lot of confidence.”

It’s hard to imagine him needing much more of that. He hasn’t finished out of the top 10 since The Players in March, a stretch of eight tournaments. He didn’t hit the ball very well for two days at the US Open and still had an outside chance on the back nine

And in his 19th round at the TPC River Highlands, he posted his lowest score at 62.

FRISCO, Texas: The LPGA has a new commissioner on the way, a new course to play and no shortage of parity as it marks the halfway point of the season at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which begins Thursday in Frisco, Texas.

It’s an important time on the women’s golf calendar for more reasons than one. Three of the next five events are major championships, and no one is running away with the season-long points competition, the Race to the CME Globe.

Through 15 tournaments in 2025, 15 different players have claimed a title, none of them named Nelly Korda. The first two majors were won by first-timers with scant previous experience in the United States — Japan’s Mao Saigo at the Chevron Championship, followed by Sweden’s Maja Stark at the US Women’s Open.

Korda is World No. 1 and entered the week as the slight betting favorite to win what would be her third major. However, she revealed that she suffered a neck spasm on Monday from hitting a practice shot out of the rough. It was concerning, given she missed time last fall with a neck injury.

“But I have a great physio who takes care of me,” Korda went on to say. “Trying to work through it, but I’ll be ready by Thursday.”

For Korda, it was far from a friendly welcome to PGA Frisco, the new resort that also serves as the PGA of America’s headquarters. The Fields Ranch East course will host the Women’s PGA again in 2031 as well as the men’s PGA Championship in 2027 and 2034.

This week, the course will be a par-72, 6,604-yard setup and serve as a test run for holding major championship golf in the Texas summer heat.

“To my knowledge, I think Gil Hanse and the team, they designed this course to host championships,” Lydia Ko of New Zealand said. “It’s designed with a purpose, and obviously the more frequently you go to these kind of sites, you kind of get more familiar with it.”

Ko played a practice round alongside Craig Kessler, who will take over as commissioner of the LPGA next month. Kessler was previously COO of the PGA of America and will be tasked with increasing the LPGA’s visibility and financial solvency.

“I’m sure he’s busy with still wrapping things up with the PGA of America and transitioning into our role as well, but it’s exciting,” Ko said. “I think it’s a great time for golf. It’s great to have somebody like him that’s enthusiastic and really wants to see where — like how far we can go.”

Korean veteran Amy Yang is the defending champion following a three-stroke victory in 2024.

“I came very close to many major championships and never won before, so on Saturday night I was very nervous and I was questioning myself, ‘Can I do it this time?’” Yang recalled. “But I distracted myself calling my friends and family and just told myself, ‘You know, go out tomorrow and just every hole, every shot, just embrace everything and see what’s going to happen.’

“That experience taught me that I can do it. I can still do it.”

The entire top 25 in the Rolex Rankings are in the field. World No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand has one victory this season, but the promising 22-year-old has yet to win a major.

“Every major I just want to make the cut, to be honest,” Thitikul said. “It would be really great to win it, and definitely I can tell that it would be like, everyone dreams to win a major. To me, what I have now under my belt, I’m pretty happy with all I’ve achieved.”