BMW Championship 2018: Xander Schauffele Tops Leaderboard After Friday Play

Xander Schauffele holds a two-shot lead in the 2018 BMW Championship after shooting a six-under 64 in Friday's second round at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. 

Schauffele, who carded an equally impressive 63 in Round 1, stands at 13 under overall. Justin Rose is two strokes off the pace at 11 under, while Rickie Fowler, Hideki Matsuyama, Keegan Bradley and Alex Noren are tied for third at 10 under through 36 holes.

Rory McIlroy (-9) and Tiger Woods (-8), the co-leaders following Thursday at 8 under, couldn't match their opening-round success, but remain in the hunt in the FedEx Cup Playoffs' penultimate tournament.

Schauffele struggled to open the PGA Tour postseason with a missed cut in the Northern Trust and a 49th-place result in the Dell Technologies Championship. It left him outside the top-30 cutoff for the Tour Championship, but the current projection for a win would move him into sixth place.

The 24-year-old reigning Tour Championship winner tallied seven birdies and one bogey in the second round. Along with trying to earn an opportunity to defend his title in the season finale, he's also hoping to secure a place on the United States Ryder Cup team.

"Obviously I thought a lot more about it the past couple of weeks," Schauffele told reporters. "You know, I'm sort of in a position where I feel like a win is the only way I'd even be in consideration. Tony [Finau] obviously is the guy right now. He just shot 64 as well. He's not making it easy on anyone else trying to get on that team. So, you know, hats off to him for playing really well."

Here's a look at some of his highlights from Round 2:

Meanwhile, Rose rolled in seven birdies on his bogey-free scorecard Friday to charge up the leaderboard. It continued a strong stretch of form for the 2016 Olympic gold medalist, who posted four straight rounds of 70 or better to finish second in the Dell Technologies Championship last week.

Woods, the only two-time FedEx Cup champion, caused a stir with his tremendous outing Thursday.

He failed to perform at the same level in the second round, though, with three birdies and three bogeys. Although his ball-striking remained on point, allowing him to hit 78.6 percent of the fairways and 77.8 percent of the greens, his putting struggled mightily to halt the discussion about the return of his Scotty Cameron putter.

Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker passed along the numbers:

Woods entered the week 25th in the playoff standings, so he's far from safe in terms of locking up a top-30 spot. He can't afford to slide down the leaderboard much more over the next couple days if he wants to play for a championship in two weeks.

In the short term, he's one of 18 golfers within five shots of Schauffele's lead ahead of Saturday's action. It should make for an entertaining finish at Aronimink.