Dell Match Play: Rankings the Round of 16 players

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — The way golf has been going the last few years, it would be reasonable to see the name “Johnson” atop the leaderboard and assume it belonged to the No. 1 player in the world. But not necessarily at The Open Championship. Zach Johnson — not Dustin — already has his name on the claret jug. And the way he handled the rain Friday in his round of 4-under 67, he might have a chance to see it on that precious silver trophy again. Johnson holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th and had a one-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood at the midway point of the second round. Fleetwood, the top player on the European Tour last year, put together the best round of the week at Carnoustie with a 65. Rory McIlroy had another 69 and was two shots behind. Johnson was at 6-under 136, and had to wait to see if it would hold up. Kevin Kisner, the 18-hole leader, was among the late starters. The light rain from overnight never let up. It wasn’t enough to turn the color of grass from brown to green, just enough to be a nuisance playing in rain gear, with towels hanging from the inside of umbrella to stay dry and putting surfaces that were slightly slower. Johnson overcame a bogey on the opening hole with birdies on the third and fourth holes, and he never put himself under too much pressure the rest of the way. Already a two-time major champion with titles at St. Andrews and Augusta National, the 42-year-old from Iowa now has made the cut 12 straight times at The Open, a streak that began at Carnoustie in 2007. His low ball flight, grinding nature and good putting give him the right ingredients. As for that other Johnson? Dustin Johnson was headed toward being the first No. 1 player in the world to miss the cut at The Open since Luke Donald in 2011 at Royal St. George’s. He appeared to keep it together with a tough par save from the bunker on No. 12, followed by two straight birdies. But he had another poor finish, closing bogey-double bogey for a 72 and is at 6-over 148 for 36 holes. Even as Tiger Woods was piecing together a level round, and late starters like Kisner and Jordan Spieth were still on the course, the cut figured to be about 3-over, plus or minus one shot. Zach Johnson and Dustin Johnson, one of golf’s most powerful players, share nothing in common but a surname. That hasn’t kept the casual fan from occasionally calling Zach Johnson by the wrong name. “I certainly am not the No. 1 player in the world that ends in ‘Johnson,” he said. “I’ve been called Dustin many times. I doubt he’s been called Zach that many times. Zach Johnson has more than held his own. In the power era of golf, he is more of a pistol than a cannon. And yet he has still won 12 times on the PGA TOUR, along with majors at the Masters and The Open. Fleetwood and McIlroy were playing a few groups ahead of Johnson, and it was a race to see who would wind up on top for much of the late morning until Johnson made his birdie putt on the final hole. Fleetwood shot 63 at Carnoustie last year in the Dunhill Links, but that was a European Tour event. In more difficult conditions, his 65 felt just as good, especially the birdie on the 18th that put him atop the leaderboard until Johnson finished. McIlroy, meanwhile, was within one shot until a long three-putt from just off the 12th green. He gave another shot back on the 15th when he pulled his second shot toward the gallery, though he made enough birdies to stay within range. “Under those conditions, I would have taken that score today going out,” McIlroy said. “It wasn’t that bad, but it was just damp enough and cold enough that the game plan that I was trying to adapt to be aggressive and hit driver a lot, I just couldn’t do it. … So a lot more irons off tees and a lot more conservative, but ended up being the same score.” Dustin Johnson wasn’t alone in his struggle this week. The No. 2 player in the world, Justin Thomas, also was headed toward a weekend off. Thomas was 2 under for the tournament when it took him two shots to get out of a pot bunker in the sixth fairway and three putts from long range on the green, leading to double bogey. He then made double bogey on the next two holes and wound up with a 77 to finish at 4 over.

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Charles Howell III … Not dissimilar to plucking red-hot Chesson Hadley for a spot in this space a week ago – Hadley went on to tie for third at the Safeway Open – it’s hardly a stretch to circle CH3 to make noise at any time. However, he enters his fourth appearance at the CIMB Classic without a top-60 finish in his last five starts of 2017. At the same time, his slumps are akin to clockwork, which means that he should be poised to take flight again. His annual upswing begins right around now. The trend has been cemented by a pair of top 10s at TPC Kuala Lumpur, coincidentally in each of the first odd-numbered years it hosted. Cameron Smith … TPC Kuala Lumpur is where the Aussie laid the foundation in earnest for his future on the PGA TOUR. It was three years ago that he tied for fifth in what was his first-ever start on the circuit. Now 24 years of age, he’s a veteran of 63 appearances, 14 of which have resulted in a top 25, including in his last start at Conway Farms (T12) in September. For the 2016-17 season, he ranked eighth in putts per GIR, ninth in birdie-or-better conversion percentage while standing over par-breaker opportunities and fourth inside 10 feet. Sung Kang … His second round at TPC Kuala Lumpur last year was one of the crazier experiences for any golfer all season. He hit only eight greens in regulation and took just 18 putts. His scorecard reflected six holes on which he didn’t putt even once! It was also a valuable loop as he signed for a 69 en route to a T21 in the tournament. The 30-year-old from South Korea popped into the top 85 of the Official World Golf Ranking earlier this year. Although he’s cooled since, he’s missed only three cuts in the last five months. It’s a promising baseline with no cut this week. Richy Werenski … The 25-year-old cobbled together a late push to qualify for the FedExCup Playoffs, so he’s back this season as a PGA TOUR sophomore. He established himself as a ball-striker throughout his rookie campaign, but it was a measured improvement while putting that was responsible for the surge. During his 6-for-6 run to conclude 2016-17, he rose from 176th with a clip of -0.455 in strokes gained: putting to 102nd at a cool 0.000. No reason to think he won’t extend what he unlocked for his debut on the receptive and scorable greens of TPC Kuala Lumpur. Gavin Kyle Green … Often known without his middle name, what no one can take away is what he’s accomplished is rapid-fire format on the Asian Tour. The 23-year-old from the CIMB Classic’s host nation of Malaysia is a rookie on the circuit, yet he sits atop its Order of Merit. He celebrated his breakthrough victory just a week-and-a-half ago in Taiwan. Despite his youth, it was already an overdue coronation given he settled four runner-up finishes from March through September. And two years before the long hitter represented his homeland in the Olympics in Rio in 2016, he was the first amateur ever to capture victory on the Asian Developmental Tour.  

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