Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox remains near the top of the field halfway through his second round at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill in Rochester, New York, despite a disappointing start to the day.

Fox, who fired a two-under 68 in the opening round to be tied for sixth, dropped down the leaderboard after carding three bogeys and a birdie over his first nine holes at the second major of the year.

Fox, who started his round on the 10th hole, was tied for 12th at the turn - on even-par - with a group of players including Padraig Harrington.

The Aucklander, ranked 41 in the world, collected five consecutive pars before dropping shots on the par-three 15th and par-four 16th.

He rolled in a sizeable birdie put on the 17th, before carding a five on the par-four 18th.

Meanwhile, last year’s Masters champion Scottie Scheffler has picked up right where he left off.

The world’s second-ranked player began the second round with back-to-back birdies to move to the top of the leaderboard in drizzly conditions at Oak Hill.

Scheffler hit his approach shot stiff at the par-four first hole for a tap-in birdie and rolled in a nine-foot putt on the second hole to move to five-under for the tournament.

Scheffler is tied at the top with Corey Conners. Like Fox, the Canadian started on the back nine and birdied the 13th and 15th holes to join Scheffler at five-under.

Scheffler opened with a bogey-free three-under 67, his first bogey-free round in 52 tries at a major tournament.

First-round leader Bryson DeChambeau is part of a group two shots back. DeChambeau, who opened with four-under 66, bogeyed the third hole to fall slightly off the early pace set by Scheffler and Conners.

First-round leader Eric Cole carded a second-round four-over 74 to drop to one-over for the tournament.

Fox came into the tournament after more than a month away from the game, having withdrawn from the RBC Heritage tournament in April due to what turned into pneumonia. He then returned to New Zealand for the birth of his second child.

The last tournament he completed was the Masters at Augusta where he finished a respectable 26th, and he showed yet again the big events don’t seem to faze him with a strong showing early on at a very challenging set-up at Oak Hill Country Club.

“It was probably a little surprising seeing as I didn’t have a lot of prep coming in and had four weeks off in the lead-up to this with a few things on. For the most part I played pretty solid. There was some pretty scruffy iron shots in there and my short game saved me. I rode a pretty hot putter today, which was nice,” Fox said after the first round.

“For the most part when I was in trouble today, I was generally in trouble in the right place and managed to get myself up and down or out of trouble pretty nicely.”

The start of the tournament was delayed by almost two hours due to frost on the course. Unfortunately for Fox, he didn’t receive notice of the delay until he was at the course, being one of the early groups off the first tee.

“I left my hotel at 5.30am just before I got the email. Then just before I got to the golf course I got the text. I certainly would have liked an extra hour in bed. But I can go and have a pretty nice nap this afternoon I think.”

- with AP