Scottie Scheffler’s lead trimmed to four shots as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry chase their share of $100m FedEx Cup bonus

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry remain on course for massive cheques from the $100m FedEx Cup bonus pool, shooting two-under 69s at East Lake before a thunderstorm rolled in and delayed play for over 90 minutes.

McIlroy was tied for 10th on eight-under with Lowry a shot further back in joint 14th.

But their slim hopes of taking the $25 million FedEx Cup look to have evaporated.

Scheffler had three holes to play when the hooter sounded and birdied the 16th and 18th on his return to shoot a five-under 66 and lead on 21-under.

He’s four shots clear of Collin Morikawa, who shot 63, and five ahead of Xander Schauffele, who shot 65.

But neither man is expecting Scheffler to fold under the pressure.

“He’s such a good player that you just know he’s going to keep going low and making birdies,” Morikawa said.

“I saw that first hand. I’ve seen it for years. For me, it’s just keep my foot on the gas and keep sticking to my game plan.”

Schauffele shot 65 but has work to do after an opening 70.

“It was nice to see some balls go in,” he said. “This course right now, with how firm the greens are, it’s a ball-striking type deal where you have to be in the fairways and hit your number, and [Scottie’s] been killing everyone at that all year.

“I know he’s not going to let up, so there’s only one way to get him.”

As for Scheffler, he started the week with a two-shot lead on 10-under due to the starting strokes format, and he’s ready for battle after seeing his seven-shot first-round lead cut to four.

“Probably will definitely not have any more seven-shot leads after — it was seven, wasn’t it? I’m sure you guys made a really huge deal of that,” he joked.

“I got off to a better start than yesterday, so it was good. Yeah, played another what I felt like was a pretty solid round of golf.”

He’s bidding to become the first player to win seven or more times in a single season since Tiger Woods in 2007.

If he wins, he will pocket that $25m jackpot and take his season’s earnings through the $60m barrier.

McIlroy is in a four-way tie for 10th that would yield a FedEx Cup bonus of $1.2m and take his PGA Tour earnings this year to $15.8m after adding the $4.6m Comcast Business Top 10 bonus for his regular season play to tournament earnings of over $10m.