The five most important things to watch on what could be a wild weekend at the U.S. Open

AVONDALE, La. — Peter Malnati and Billy Hurley III topped the Zurich Classic of New Orleans leaderboard at 14-under 130 on Friday when darkness suspended second-round play in the team event at TPC Louisiana. Malnati and Hurley played 36 holes Friday, shooting a best-ball 9-under 63 in the morning in the rain-delayed first round and a 67 in alternate-shot play in the afternoon in the second round. Play was delayed for more than seven hours Thursday, with only half of the 80 two-man teams teeing off. “You play well in a day that doesn’t feel as long,” Malnati said. “But I’ll tell you what, I’m going to call it maybe our 28th or 29th hole, as we were making the turn, my legs were tired. I know Billy and I both, most of the guys out here, are into our conditioning and it’s important, but you’re not prepared to be on your feet walking for what we were today, 10 hours or more, with warmup more than that. It’s a long day.” They played bogey-free in alternate shot, also the final-round format after the best-ball third round. Because of the wet conditions, players were allowed to lift, clean and place their golf balls in the fairways. “We’d love to have a couple of putts back late on our second nine today,” Hurley said. “But playing 36 holes and stuff, the greens definitely got kind of scruffy a little bit and harder to make putts, so we’re super thrilled with pretty much every shot I think we hit today.” First-round leaders Brian Gay and Rory Sabbatini were a stroke back with Russell Knox-Brian Stuard, Scott Stallings-Trey Mullinax and Kevin Kisner-Scott Brown, with only Knox and Stuard finishing two rounds. Gay-Sabbatini and Kisner-Brown had 14 holes left in the second round, and Stallings-Mullinax had nine to go. Knox and Stuard shot 62-69 in their 36-hole day. “I think we kind of got a bit of a break not having to come out yesterday and then getting it all in today,” Stuard said. “It’ll be nice to relax for a little bit.” Gay and Sabbatini opened with a 60. Major champions Henrik Stenson and Graeme McDowell topped the group at 12 under after rounds of 65 and 67. “We had a long day today. We have a bit of a lay-in tomorrow,” Stenson said. “It’s been a disrupted week for everyone one way or the other, and possibly the conditions for the guys who played yesterday and finished up this morning were a little easier. But we didn’t have to sit in the clubhouse all day yesterday. So there’s been pluses and minuses for everyone.”  

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HONOLULU — Matt Kuchar overcame three early bogeys that cost him the lead with flawless golf and two key birdies on the back nine to close with a 4-under 66 and win the Sony Open in Hawaii for his second PGA TOUR title this season. It wasn’t as easy as his four-shot victory over Andrew Putnam might indicate. Having made only one bogey through 54 holes to build a two-shot lead, Kuchar had three bogeys in his opening five holes Sunday and fell one shot behind Putnam, and he had to make a 10-foot birdie putt at the turn to avoid falling two shots behind. Kuchar caught him with an aggressive pitch up the slope on the par-4 10th hole. They remained tied with five holes to play when Putnam made bogey from a deep bunker left of the 14th green, and Kuchar made a pair of 12-foot birdie putts on the next two holes to seize control. Just like that, his lead was three shots, making for a pleasant walk up the par-5 18th. Kuchar became the first multiple winner on the PGA TOUR this season, having ended a drought of more than four years when he captured the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico last November. It was only the second time in his career Kuchar has won twice in the same season. He won the Match Play Championship and the Memorial in 2013. Now, he has the meat of the season in front of him. “I want to see how great this year can be,” Kuchar said. He finished at 22-under 258, the third-lowest total in Waialae history behind the PGA TOUR record of 253 by Justin Thomas in 2017 and Jimmy Walker’s 72-hole score of 257 when he won in 2015. Putnam, who won his first PGA TOUR title last summer at the Barracuda Championship, didn’t blink until that approach into the bunker that led to his lone bogey, and he couldn’t make enough putts to stay close to Kuchar the rest of the way. He closed with a 68 and moved into the top 50 in the world for the first time in his career. Corey Conners of Canada, who got into the field through a Monday qualifier, had a 64-64 weekend and was among four players who tied for third, though none had a serious chance of challenging what amounted to a two-player race at the top. Even so, the performance was big for Conner, who narrowly missed a full PGA TOUR card last year. Along with his runner-up finish in the Sanderson Farms Championship last fall, he has nearly as many FedExCup points as last year when he finished at No. 130. Marc Leishman (64), Hudson Swafford (64) and Chez Reavie (67) also finished in a tie for third. Davis Love III, who first played the Sony Open in 1986, missed by one shot matching the lowest 72-hole score of his career. His 64-65 weekend gave him a tie for seventh, and he now heads off to Singapore with hopes of earning a spot in The Open Championship. But this day ultimately belonged to Kuchar, who won for the ninth time in his career. He ended the 2018 season earlier than he wanted, failing to reach the TOUR Championship for the first time since 2009 and ending his streak of playing on eight straight teams in the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. He won again in Mexico in a Sunday much tighter than he would have preferred, and had a few nervous moments at the start at Waialae. He went long of the second green, leading to bogey. The other two were sloppy — a three-putt across the back of the fourth green, and a wedge into No. 5 that he was begging to get down as soon as it left his club. It hopped into the back bunker, and he missed an 8-foot par putt to lose the lead. From there, however, Kuchar had a birdie chance on the final 13 holes. Kuchar and Putnam were in a bunker short of the green on the par-5 ninth. Putnam went first and it rolled out to 2 inches for birdie. Kuchar came out weakly, but made the 10-foot birdie putt. They traded birdies on the 12th and 13th, and Kuchar took over from there. “It was so uncharacteristic of me,” Kuchar said, referring to his three-putt and bad wedge on No. 5. “But I kept plugging along, and I knew good things were going to happen. … To win two out of three is crazy to comprehend.”

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AVONDALE, La. — Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax shot a best-ball 11-under 61 to top the Zurich Classic of New Orleans leaderboard after a weather delay longer than seven hours prevented half of the 80 teams from even teeing off Thursday. Stallings and Mullinax, who started on the back nine, birdied their last four holes at the TPC Louisiana — and seven of nine holes after the turn — for a one-stroke lead over two teams. “We both played solid all day — missed a couple putts, short ones, but made a couple longs ones,” Mullinax said. “We both putted really well. Scott was really good with his wedges.” Martin Laird and Nick Taylor, who were in the same group as the leaders, finished at 10 under. But the team of Brian Gay and Rory Sabbatini had both of the top teams in their sights after birdies on the first five holes of the back nine got them to 10 under through 14 holes. All but 13 teams still had part or all of the first round still to play when darkness stopped play. Seventeen teams were within five shots of the lead. The Zurich Classic is the only team even on the PGA TOUR, and the format alternates between best ball in the first and third rounds and alternate shot in the second and final rounds. The Australian tandem of Jason Day and Adam Scott, who started on No. 10 at 7:39 a.m. could be seen jogging down the fairway on No. 8 in hopes of completing their round on the ninth hole as the sun set just past 7:30 p.m. local time. But as Scott lined up for his second shot on a fairway bunker, the horn sounded to signal that would be the last hole, and that players who hadn’t finished the first round would have to be back on the course at 7 a.m. on Friday. Scott backed away from his ball in a fairway bunker and briefly assumed a defeated, slouched posture, knowing he’d be among players with an early wake-up call the next day. The delay was caused by a downpour that dropped nearly three inches while lightning flashed intermittently in the vicinity of the course, which was carved out of cypress swamps just southwest of New Orleans. The first players to tee off were on the course for a little more than two-and-a-half hours before the horn sounded to suspend play. The tandem of Joel Dahmen and Brandon Harkins left the course with the early lead at 6 under through nine when the delay began. “We were rolling, too, so (the delay) wasn’t great for us,” Harkins said. Organizers briefly tried to restart early in the afternoon before another storm struck. “To get ready for a third time is hard,” Harkins said. “You can do two, but rarely do you do three.” They completed their round tied for fourth with Brice Garnett and Chesson Hadley at 9 under. During the delay, Stallings said he did “a whole lot of nothing,” adding that he “sat in the car, took a nap, went in the trailer, hung out” with other players. Play resumed in the evening with just more than two hours of daylight left. Galleries were so sparse at that point that chirping birds and croaking frogs made more noise than spectators, even for stars Day and Scott, who were among seven teams at 8 under. Only a handful of people were present to witness Day’s unusual second shot on the par-4 first hole, which was his group’s 10th hole of the day. After hooking his tee shot through the trees to the left of the fairway, Day had to find his ball among numerous practice balls on the driving range. He then lofted his second shot 123 yards back over a row of the trees to 8 feet from the pin. After all that, he narrowly missed his birdie putt and reacted by flipping his putter in the air and catching it after a full rotation. Day didn’t even bother the finish the par-5 second hole after his second shot landed in the rough. That’s because Scott was on in two after a 300-yard drive into the fairway and a 256-yard second shot to the green. He narrowly missed a 53-foot putt for eagle before draining a 2-footer for birdie. Day regained his form with an 8-foot birdie putt on the par-4, 435-yard No. 5 hole and added another birdie on the par-5 seventh when his 323-yard tee shot set up his 232-yard second shot to the green. His eagle putt rolled just inches past the hole.

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