Schauffele (69): 'Stoked' for delay, uses closing eagle to salvage round

ATLANTA – As the storms rolled in to East Lake on Friday afternoon, Xander Schauffele welcomed them with open arms.

At the time, Schauffele had just carded his second straight birdie at No. 9 and made the turn in 1-over 36, trailing his first-round co-leaders by four. Then the rain came and players sat through a delay just over an hour and a half. Those who were in the groove–like Brooks Koepka and Justin Thomas, who both carded three outward-nine birdies–probably despised the weather horn.

Not Schauffele.

"Probably the first time I can say that I'm very stoked to have a delay," Schauffele said following his second-round 69. "I came back out swinging it much better than I did on the front…