Birthday boy Xander Schauffele cracks joke about his meltdown at ZOZO Championship

Xander Schauffele joked he'd try not to make a nine at the ZOZO Championship as he received a birthday cake from tournament organisers. 

Schauffele turned 31 years old on Friday in Japan. 

Tournament organisers brought the golfer a cake as he was eating his breakfast.

And he was serenaded with a song on the first tee before getting underway alongside Min Woo Lee and Rickie Fowler. 

Schauffele went on to card a bogey-free second round of 5-under 65, which marked a significant improvement from his entertaining 73 on Thursday in which he made a snowman on the par-4 9th. 

For his part, Schauffele labelled himself an idiot after twice trying and failing to escape trouble. 

Remind yourself on what happened here.

Echavarria takes the lead

At the top of the leaderboard Nico Echavarria forged a two-shot lead overe Taylor Moore and Justin Thomas. 

Eric Cole, Rickie Fowler and Ireland's Seamus Power were also inside the top-10 after 36 holes. 

Thomas is playing his first PGA Tour event since the Tour Championship. 

He wasn't selected for the Presidents Cup in Canada. 

Rounds of 66 and 64 here have shown Thomas is finding some decent form. 

Thomas told reporters on Friday that he has spent a lot of time controlling his wedges and working on distance control.

"I'm eager to win any tournament, I always want to," Thomas said. 

"When things are going well, you feel like you should do that quite often and every year, but it's just the reality of how difficult the sport is. 

"Also, I think the Tour is quite a bit deeper than even when I first came out. 

"You have a lot of guys that are freakishly talented and have no fear and are hungry to win like all of us are. 

"It's not entirely different than it has been for a little while, but just trying to play the best I can and hopefully that results in that."

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