US Open champion JJ Spaun converted two of his three eagle chances, Cameron Young shot 30 on the back nine and Hideki Matsuyama was bogey-free, all of them part of another five-way tie for the lead on Friday in the Hero World Challenge.
Two bogeys saw Justin Rose drop back to -8, two off the lead, with Scottie Scheffler lurking dangerously just one shot behind the leading pack.
Rose duplicated his score of 68 from the first round with an eagle on the 15th hole to sit in ninth place.
Scheffler holed an 18-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th at the same time Young finally cooled off by missing an 8-foot par putt on the 18th. That put Scheffler at 11-under par for a one-shot lead that lasted all of one hole.
He pulled his tee shot on the 16th for the second straight day, this time having to take a penalty shot to get out of a bush. Then, he misjudged the trajectory of a blind shot and it clipped the top of another palmetto bush, leading to a double bogey.
Akshay Bhatia birdied the 18th for a 68 to join former US Open champion Wyndham Clark (68), Spaun (68), Matsuyama (66) and Young (64), all on 10 under atop the leaderboard.
Spaun made only five eagles all season and then seized on the scoring holes. He hit a 3-wood to three feet on the par-5 sixth and hit a tee shot on the reachable par-4 14th that settled five feet away, both of them eagles. He narrowly missed a 15-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th.
That allowed him to recover from a pair of bogeys on the opening four holes.
"Didn't get a great start, but salvaged a pretty decent round," Spaun said.
Bhatia, in his final tournament before getting married, saved himself at the end with a nifty par save from short of the 16th green and then a bogey on the par-3 17th when he chipped through the green and into a bunker, blasted out and made a 15-foot putt to keep it from being worse.
Scheffler shot a 69 and was tied at 9-under 135 with Alex Noren (66) and Sepp Straka (69), with former Albany resident Rose another shot back after a 68.
"I think I did some good things out there. Just a few too many mistakes, but overall still felt pretty good," Scheffler said.
Billy Horschel had a 68 and was five shots behind. He missed most of this year after hip surgery and is the only player in the 20-man field who has not secured a spot in the Masters. Horschel is at No 45 in the world ranking - the top 50 at the end of the year get into the Masters - and a solid finish could settle that.
Watch continued coverage of the Hero World Challenge on SportNews Golf from 5pm and SportNews Main Event from 8.30pm on Saturday.
