HOUSTON >> Scottie Scheffler opened with two straight birdies and was on his way Friday in the Houston Open, tying the Memorial Park record with an 8-under 62 for a one-shot lead when the second round was halted by darkness after a two-hour storm delay Friday.

It was the most complete round of the year for Scheffler, who missed the first month of the season recovering from a glass puncture in his right palm that required minor surgery.

The only green he missed was on No. 2 — his 11th of the round — and he holed that from just inside 30 feet for birdie.

“Yesterday I felt like I made a couple key par saves, and today I felt like for the most part I kept the golf course in front of me and I had a lot of looks for birdie,” Scheffler said. “So I didn’t feel like I was struggling for par too much, and that was mostly because I was in the fairway.”

Scheffler also shot 62 in 2021 at Memorial Park. He shares the course record with Tony Finau, who shot 62 in 2022 and 2024.

It was the eighth time Scheffler shot 62 or lower — one of those was a 59 in the FedEx Cup playoffs at TPC Boston in 2020 — and his first since he shot 62 in the final round at Le Golf National to win the Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games.

Scheffler was at 11-under 129.

He led by one shot over Taylor Pendrith of Canada, who shot a 65. Nico Echavarria also was one shot behind until he hit his tee shot into the water on the 17th hole. Echavarria faced a par chip from 45 feet when play resumed Saturday morning.

Rory McIlroy was 11 shots behind when he stood on the tee for his afternoon start. After returned from the storm, his first concern was making the cut. But McIlroy ran off three straight birdies late in his round and managed to finish out for a 66. He was seven back.

“It’s the sort of golf course where it’s easy to just make a ton of pars, not a lot of trouble out there, but you just need some putts to go in to make birdies,” McIlroy said.

Ryan Gerard had the best chance at catching Scheffler. He was at 9-under par and still had seven holes to finish in the second round due to the storms. Scheffler and the early starters managed to avoid bad weather.