Follow live: What’s happening in Tiger vs. Phil

MCKINNEY, Texas — Jordan Spieth woke up Friday at 4:30 a.m. He felt tight on the range at the AT&T Byron Nelson. He bogeyed his first hole. Spieth found little to like early in the second round, starting his morning slowly on the back nine and playing holes 10 through 13 at TPC Craig Ranch at 1 over. “Losing a couple to the field there got me a little frustrated,” he said. “If you kind of tap the brakes a little when the scores are going to be low you feel like you have to play catchup.” Except that didn’t happen either. Spieth made just three birdies Friday. He lost his share of the lead and finished with a 2-under 70, three behind K.H. Lee. There was little wind when he and longtime friends Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris started play. Spieth hoped for a score around 5 under. That, the Dallas native and resident thought, would keep him at the top of the leaderboard for the weekend at the tournament where he made his first PGA TOUR start when he was 16 years old. But after a birdie on his fifth hole, Spieth stalled. He fought with his patience as he made par after par after par. The putter didn’t cooperate, either. The longest putt he holed was from 11 feet 2 inches on No. 1, his 10th hole. It was for par. “I just had plenty of looks,” Spieth said. “I didn’t make many putts at all today.” It was nothing like Thursday, when he made seven birdies and an exhilarating eagle on the par-5 18th. A substantial share of the 12,500 spectators on the course committed to following the group of three old rivals from the North Texas PGA section junior tour, many of them cheering robustly when Spieth made another putt or saved another stroke or tested the odds, as he did in spectacular fashion on No. 12. After a blocked drive finished in a patch of mud behind a clump of crabgrass, Spieth and his caddie discussed their many options. His ball sat about 245 yards from the hole at the reachable par-5, but tree limbs dangled to his right, forcing him to shape a shot just so to clear a creek that runs through the property. A prudent punch seemed the logical play. But Spieth never wavered. He slammed a soaring hybrid to 10 feet from the hole. The galleries howled, and Spieth seemed invincible. Even that pure joy of playing seemed elusive Friday, he said. “I think yesterday, even when I wasn’t playing a good hole, I was kind of laughing at the miss or chunked it and laughed,” he said. “Today I had a shorter fuse.” After two consecutive birdies Thursday to go to minus 7, Spieth drove short of the green on the par-4 14th. He hit his pitch too heavy and scrambled for par, but chuckled at the mistake. On the tee of the 15th, a long par-3 over water, Spieth thinned his iron and begged for it to find the ground. When it did, he leaned on his club and smiled. That Jordan Spieth never quite made it to the course the next day. The Spieth who did wasn’t nearly as loose, sharp or forgiving. “I’ll just get some better rest tonight and then, like I said tomorrow, will be kind of a fun test,” he said. “There is no reason for me not to trust everything I’m doing. At this point, I’ve got an opportunity to contend here, and if I can get myself a chance on Sunday, that is the best prep for this tournament and also next week.”

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Davis Love III still thinks he can re-write the record books. “Winning is always my goal,â€� he said. Love, 54, may be a grandfather, but he has no plans to pare down his PGA TOUR schedule. He actually hopes to play more than he did in the previous two seasons. Love could become the oldest winner in PGA TOUR history, surpassing Sam Snead’s record of 52 years, 10 months and 8 days. Raymond Floyd’s record of longest span between first and last victories (28 years) also is within reach. Love won for the first time in 1987. No one has ever won multiple titles in their 50s. He was 51 when he won the 2015 Wyndham Championship. That was his 21st PGA TOUR win. He is a lifetime member for reaching 20 wins and 15 seasons on TOUR. “Obviously, like a few years ago at Greensboro, everything would have to go right. You (have to) hit it good and putt good at the same time,â€� Love said. “I think that can still happen. You get me within two or three of the lead on Sunday, I’m going to have a chance. I just have to get there. “The odds obviously continue to decrease every year. But I look at what Tom Watson almost did, Greg Norman almost did at The Open Championship, what Sam Snead did late in his career, what Jack Nicklaus did at the Masters, that’s the reason I keep working.â€� As is often the case with players of advanced age, injuries and putting have been the problem. Love has played more than 750 PGA TOUR events, but he it’s been three years since he played more than 15 in a season. He had hip-replacement surgery after last year’s RSM and played just nine PGA TOUR events and four on PGA TOUR Champions in 2018. “Like I told you, if Tiger plays a full season, he’ll win a golf tournament. Well, he played a full season and won a golf tournament,â€� Love said. “I would like a shot at playing a full season without being hurt. … I haven’t played my normal 23 or 24 or 25 events. I would like to do that this year and just see how I play.â€� The RSM Classic, where he also serves as host, will be his third start of the season. He finished T59 at the CIMB Classic and 57th at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. He plans to play the Sony Open in Hawaii, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Open. He is a two-time winner at Pebble Beach. The Charles Schwab Challenge and RBC Heritage, played at two of the TOUR’s shorter courses, also are on his schedule. He has five wins at the Heritage, including his first PGA TOUR victory. There were promising signs in his last start. At TPC Summerlin, he was second in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green and eighth in proximity to the hole. He was second-to-last in Strokes Gained: Putting, though. He missed three putts from 3-5 feet and was just 1 for 5 from 7-10 feet. He only made 3 of 18 attempts from 10-15 feet, as well. “As usual, it’s going to come down to putting for me. If I can putt well enough to beat them (on PGA TOUR Champions), I think I can probably sneak in a win out here,â€� Love said. “Obviously, like a few years ago at Greensboro, everything would have to go right.â€� He has experimented with the arm-lock method that Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson, Bryson DeChambeau and Keegan Bradley used to win recently. Love said he’s had “very little successâ€� with it, though. “I’m rolling the ball great. I have to relax and play and quit trying to force it,” Love said. “Calling (sports psychologist Bob) Rotella probably is the answer.” It may be the only thing standing between him and history.

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