Australia’s Hend leads by 2 at fog-affected European Masters

MEDINAH, Ill. — On the range, Justin Thomas had no idea where the ball was going. Some five hours later, he had a share of the course record at Medinah. Ultimately, all that mattered Thursday in the BMW Championship was taking a good step toward an important goal. Thomas already is set for the TOUR Championship next week and the chase for FedExCup and its $15 million prize. That’s not what interests him. “It’s about winning tournaments,” he said.  He made his first birdie after hitting a tree on the fourth hole, leaving him a 5-iron he hit to 2 feet. His last birdie was a putt from about 60 feet on the fringe from the back of the 16th green. He did enough right in between for a 7-under 65 and a share of the lead with Jason Kokrak. The others to post 65 at Medinah were Tiger Woods, Mike Weir and Skip Kendall at the PGA Championship in 1999 and 2006. Woods won both those majors. Winning the second FedExCup Playoff event might be a lot tougher. One week after he withdrew with a mild oblique strain at Liberty National, Woods could only manage a 71 that felt feeble compared with everyone else. All but two players in the 69-man field were at par or better on a Medinah course that was soft from bursts of rain earlier in the week. Woods is projected to need a top 10 this week to advance to East Lake, where he is defending champion. After one round, he was tied for 50th. “It’s just not sharp,” Woods said. “I’m trying to make changes in my swing, and it’s just not quite there yet.” The good news for Woods? He says he didn’t feel any tightness in his oblique. “I just need to clean up my rounds and get going,” he said. “Seems like the whole field is under par.” That starts with Thomas, who has not won since the World Golf Championship at Firestone a year ago. He wouldn’t have thought such an opportunity might exist the way he warmed up on the range Thursday morning. “I probably would say that I had the worst warmup I’ve ever had in my life this morning,” he said. The goal heading to the first tee was to find something that would allow him to get around without doing too much damage. “I’ve had that happen plenty of times, just not quite that extreme,” Thomas said. “I’m usually pretty good at finding my way around a golf course and finding something, but definitely didn’t expect that today.” Kokrak does have the TOUR Championship on his mind. Along with a chase for the $15 million, just getting to East Lake includes an invitation to the Masters, and he’s never been. He played the par 5s in 5 under — including an eagle on No. 10 when he holed a 30-yard shot from the rough — and made only one bogey. Kokrak, who has never won in 207 starts as a pro on the PGA TOUR, is No. 32 in the FedExCup. The top 30 after this week advance to the TOUR Championship, where there will be a staggered start based on par for the final event. The leader will start at 10 under. The 30th player will start at even par. The goal for Kokrak is to get there. “I thought about doing some number-crunching and seeing what I had to finish, but I think putting myself in a good position to win a golf tournament is going to get the job done,” he said. “I don’t think I need to worry about where I need to finish in the tournament. I’d rather go out and try to win.” They had a one-shot lead over 49-year-old Jim Furyk, a former FedExCup champion who hasn’t been back to East Lake in five years. Patrick Cantlay, Joel Dahmen, Lucas Glover and Brandt Snedeker also were at 66, while the large group at 67 included Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa. Dahmen and Morikawa have a different outlook. Morikawa was finishing up at Cal just over two months ago and had limited time just to try to secure a PGA TOUR card. He did that with a victory at the Barracuda Championship, and along with his runner-up finish in Minnesota, he comes into this week at No. 57 with an outside shot at the TOUR Championship. “It’s definitely a goal of mine now,” Morikawa said. “Just because I reached those goals for this summer doesn’t mean I’m going to stop here. I’m not satisfied with just ending my season here. Obviously, it’s very fun and I’m grateful to be here after the win. But it doesn’t stop here.” Dahmen, a cancer survivor who reached the BMW Championship for the first time in his career, is No. 63 in the FedExCup and felt free. “I am so far out of East Lake,” he said. “Actually, my wife asked me that earlier this week. I think it would be way harder if you’re in a spot where you have to finish like 30th to get into East Lake. You still have to grind it out every day to sneak into that number, and then you’re kind of looking at the number. Where for me to get in position to be at East Lake, I basically try to win the golf tournament. “East Lake is obviously a goal, but I’m going to be so into the golf tournament and trying to win a golf tournament that East Lake would be a product of that for me.”

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LAS VEGAS - Collin Morikawa wasn't about to let Xander Schauffele have all the fun, even if it went somewhat unnoticed. After a relatively benign opening 1-under 71 on Thursday, Morikawa slotted seven birdies in a bogey-free 7-under 65 in the second round of THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK to find his way into a tie for fifth. Amazingly it was a round that went a little under the radar as he was paired with Schauffele who set the course alight early and ultimately went one better with a 64. RELATED: Full leaderboard | What the pros are playing at Shadow Creek Schauffele birdied seven of his opening nine holes to shoot 29 on the back side and added one more birdie on the front to move to 14 under and three shots clear at the top of the leaderboard. But while he has set up a substantial and impressive lead, Morikawa's effort ensured Schauffele won't be able to take his foot off the gas on the weekend. The 23-year-old flashed one of his now trademark cheeky grins when he was met with a question about Schauffele's birdie blitz, reminding those in attendance that he also had gone low and so to had the third member of the threesome in Viktor Hovland (66). "It wasn’t just him. Viktor was making a bunch of birdies in that stretch, I had a couple myself. It’s enjoyable," he quipped. "When you have momentum like that, you just want to keep it going, you don’t want to kind of stall out mid round. "All of us just kept making birdies… I knew it wasn’t going to stop. I knew there was birdie chances on the front nine and we just had to keep it going. As long as I kept giving myself good looks, hitting the fairway, I knew a few would drop by 18." Morikawa credited the blemish free round to a new putter he's using this week. He's made a switch to a mallet style from the blade type he used to win the Workday Charity Open and PGA Championship last season. He needed 28 putts on Thursday and just 26 Friday and has gained 1.545 shots over the field on the greens to go with his usual ball-striking clinic. His approach game has yielded 4.077 strokes against the field so far. "I had a long neck in the blade and the way it was stroking from lag putts, it was never consistent, like the ball didn’t roll as well," he said. "If you look at the best putters, obviously their putts roll really well and their speed’s really consistent. The blade, when I found it outside 30 feet, some I’d hit past and then I’d adjust and then the next one it would be maybe six feet short. I was just looking for something to roll a lot cleaner through the putt."

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