Follow live: USA fighting back at Ryder Cup

With the sands to the 2020-21 PGA TOUR season quickly tumbling downward in the hourglass, this is crunch time for those on the bubble in the FedExCup standings. At the 3M Open this week outside Minneapolis, the race to finish in the top 125 to qualify for next month’s FedExCup Playoffs opener at Liberty National (THE NORTHERN TRUST) is very much front and center. RELATED: Leaderboard | Dustin Johnson looks to find form at 3M Open A handful of players on both sides the bubble have arrived at 3M and responded with some of their best golf of the season. With only three weeks remaining in the regular season – which includes next week’s break for The Olympics – count Chez Reavie (119th in the FedExCup standings) among those shining when he most needs to shine. Despite a sloppy bogey-6 at the par-5 18th – a hole he had eagled in the opening round – Reavie followed his opening 66 with a second-round, 4-under 67 to move into contention for the weekend at 3M. He is at 9-under 133. At one point this season, Reavie, who turns 40 in November, missed 10 cuts in 12 starts. In fact, you have to travel back to 2009 to find a season in which he has had as many weekends off as this one (14). Luckily for him, Reavie, eighth in the FedExCup final standings only two years ago, is experienced enough to know that if he kept his head down and kept working hard, eventually his game would turn for the better. It has. He arrived at 3M having missed only one cut in his last six starts, with top-20 finishes at Congaree and John Deere. “It was just more annoying than anything else,” Reavie said of his poor play to start the year. “Wasn’t playing bad, missed a lot of cuts by a shot and golf seemed really tough at the time. You know, I just kind of fought through it, and here we are playing well. I’ve played well the last few weeks, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.” Reavie was flawless through 17 holes on Friday, making five birdies and no bogeys. At the par-5 18th, he drove the ball into the native area down the left side and was only able to advance his second shot about 70 yards. He reached the green with his fourth shot and barely missed his 13-footer for par. Through two rounds, Reavie has been very encouraged by his quality of putting, which bodes well for a solid weekend. “Even like on the last hole, didn’t go in but I hit a great putt and it had every opportunity to go in, so that’s just what I want to focus on for the weekend,” Reavie said. Every player from Nos. 114 through 127 in the FedExCup standings ventured to Minneapolis to try to improve his positioning for the stretch run, trying to find some late-season magic. On a day with temperatures in the 90s and the heat index soaring near 100, the early scoring was proving just as sizzling. Bo Hoag (125th) came through with a 66 Friday, and names on the bubble such as Scott Stallings (117th), Brice Garnett (121st) and Rickie Fowler (124th) were responding well to the pressure of their situations as the second wave of players teed off on Friday afternoon. Fowler, 32, never has missed the Playoffs in his 11 seasons on the PGA TOUR. Hoag, 32 and in his third PGA TOUR season, shot 67 on Thursday and said it was important to keep the pedal down on Friday. He made six birdies, and like Reavie, encountered his lone bogey on his final hole, with Hoag settling for 5 at the challenging 511-yard ninth, where he drove his ball into left-side native area and had to chop out to get back into play. As for the torrid pace of scoring at TPC Twin Cities, which was softened by rains on Thursday? Hoag said he embraces it. “You only have one option,” said Hoag, who has been lifted by recent solid showings at the Memorial (his hometown event in Ohio), where he was T13, and last week’s Barbasol Championship (T11). “You know you’re going to have to shoot a good round or else you’re going to get left behind. There’s no real guessing game. Just got to be pretty aggressive with the scoring clubs in your hands and try to make some birdies out there.” With Friday’s afternoon wave still on the golf course, four players shared the lead at 9-under 133: Roger Sloan (69); Reavie; Hoag; and Jhonnattan Vegas (69). Others on the bubble who finished in the early wave on Friday and made needed moves: No. 118 Camilo Villegas, who played his last seven holes in 4 under (including an eagle at 18) to shoot 69; No. 123 Chesson Hadley (at 3-under 139 after shooting 72); No. 126 Chase Seiffert, who rallied with a bogey-free 67 after shooting 73 Thursday; and No. 131 Michael Thompson, the tournament’s defending champion, who shot 67 to move inside the cutline at 3 under. “There’s a lot to play for this week,” Thompson said.

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It was the calm before the storm that came after a mega storm. Returning to Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club Saturday after almost 10-inches of rain saturated the area on Friday and caused the postponement of the second round, Tiger Woods calmly took control at a quiet ZOZO Championship.  RELATED: Leaderboard | Tiger chases Snead’s record | Monday finish determined for ZOZO CHAMPIONSHIP His second straight 6-under 64 pushed the 43-year-old to 12 under par through 36 holes, good enough for a two-shot lead over current U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland. Woods is of course now well and truly on track to join Sam Snead with a record-tying 82nd PGA TOUR win, a fact that will send returning spectators into a frenzy of epic proportions. The odds may be in his favor when you take into account the fact Woods has turned 38 of 49 halfway leads/co-leads to victory and on the 33 occasions he was an outright leader, 28 of them ended with wins. It is incredible considering this is his first tournament of the new 2019-20 season after a nine-week break that included knee surgery. While the two-time FedExCup champion is accustomed to feeding off huge galleries that create roars at every turn, it was a far different vibe on this occasion. Safety concerns after the previous days deluge meant PGA TOUR officials kept spectators off the grounds for the second round leaving an eerie silence around the golf course. Just days after thousands were 20-deep at seemingly every turn the place was a virtual ghost town save for the diehard fans who climbed trees and peered through fences just for a glimpse of their hero. Woods played as if the crowds were still there. As if on auto pilot he still waved after his seven birdies and provided a little showmanship when walking in some putts. When he encountered those people in the trees behind the fences he couldn’t help but flash them his trademark grin. “I made a couple putts today and I went to put my hand up and I’m like, don’t put your hand up, there’s no one clapping, so just move on about your business and just go ahead and keep trying to plug my way up the board, and I was able to do that,â€� Woods admitted. “I’m surprised that I was able to score as well as I have; usually that takes a little bit of time. But this golf course is a little bit on the softer side. I’ve been able to strike my irons pretty well this week so far and that’s been nice. “I left a lot of my approach shots below the hole and I was able to be pretty aggressive, and the greens are a little bit slower than they were yesterday. I had a good feel on the putting green, which was nice. Hit a lot of putts from below the hole and making sure that I put a lot of right hand into it and released it and it felt good all day.â€� The third round is scheduled to begin at 6:30 a.m. local time Sunday (5:30 p.m. ET Saturday) with Woods in the last group at 8:30 a.m. (7:30 p.m. ET) along with Woodland and Keegan Bradley (four back). The crowds will be allowed back in and are expected to be at capacity. The players will not be regrouped after the round and will continue into the fourth round, playing until darkness before the tournament will then conclude on Monday morning. The prospect of extra holes in one day will put more pressure on Woods recently repaired knee and his surgically fused back. It’s a different kind of storm he needs to weather … fatigue and stiffness. At one point during the round there was a long wait on the par-5 14th hole forcing some precautionary stretching and ultimately the addition of a vest. All part of the management needed in his game these days. “It’s just going to be a long day,â€� Woods said of Sunday. “Eat a lot of food tonight and then tomorrow, same thing, make sure that I eat enough and feel good about my warm‑up session. “I felt like I hit it a little bit better today … that’s nice going into a long day like tomorrow because it’s going to be a bit of a test physically and mentally to play for, what, up to 10 hours. Hopefully I can play well and get myself right there.â€�

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