Jordan Spieth is still trying to find Jordan Spieth

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Justin Thomas was playing well enough to want to keep going, with six birdies in a seven-hole stretch before it was too dark to continue Friday at the Genesis Open. It also was raining. It was cold. And he already had been slogging through Riviera for nine hours. “It’s hard playing 30 holes, but it’s really hard when it’s raining and it’s soft,” Thomas said after making 14 birdies on a long day that sent him home tied for the lead with Adam Scott at 10-under par. “My legs are tired, so I just need to go home and rest and get some food and try to go to sleep early as I can.” Thomas, who opened with a 5-under 66 in the morning, was 5 under for his second round through 12 holes. He had an eight-hole stretch when he didn’t make a par (six birdies, two bogeys), ending with a two-putt par on No. 3. Scott was in the group right behind him and just as efficient, also opening with a 66 and reaching 5 under. His only blemish was a long three-putt for bogey on the par-5 17th on a course he loves. Scott won at Riviera in the rain 14 years ago, a tournament that was cut short to 36 holes and decided in a playoff. “I just got the momentum going and I kept it going,” Scott said. Tiger Woods had a few big moments that didn’t last long. He had four straight birdies around the turn in the morning, a streak that ended with a three-putt bogey at No. 12. He had four three-putts in the first round for a 70. His highlight in the afternoon, as the temperatures and rain became steady, was a 45-foot eagle putt on the par-5 first to start his back nine. It really was an Instagram moment, for a fan screamed out, “Make this! It’s going on Instagram!” Woods delivered, only to bogey the next two holes to end his day at even par for the second round, 1 under for the tournament. “I’m stiff right now,” Woods said after playing the most number of holes in one day since his return from a fourth back surgery. “It got pretty chilly toward the end. The ball wasn’t going very far.” No need telling that to Thomas. He was in the right rough after hitting driver 260 yards, leaving him 222 yards to a back pin on an elevated green. He pounded 5-wood to 10 feet and made his last birdie of the day. J.B. Holmes was another shot behind at the turn. Holmes was the 18-hole leader thanks to a hole-in-one on the par-3 sixth hole, followed by a birdie that led to an 8-under 63. At the time, he was one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, who played all of six holes on Friday to complete his bogey-free 64 in calm conditions. Spieth figured it would be like that all day. He was wrong. Light rain fell as Woods, Thomas and Rory McIlroy (3 under through 12) were finishing the first round. It never really stopped the rest of the day. The start of the tournament was delayed seven hours Thursday, so just about everyone who makes the cut will face long days at some point. The second round resumes at 7 a.m., and the other half of the field starts their second round at 7:40 a.m. The cut figures to be made Saturday afternoon, leaving no more than about two hours of play the rest of the day. Those in or around the lead after 36 holes can expect to go 36 more on Sunday. Dustin Johnson played 36 holes on Sunday when he won the Genesis Open two years ago. Long before it was getting dark, Holmes could see just fine when he hit 8-iron to the back pin at No. 6, located just to the left of the bunker in the middle of the green. “Hit it exactly how I wanted it and it went in,” Holmes said. “It looked good the whole time.” Spieth took advantage of the restart on Thursday. His opening shot on the par-4 10th hit the cart path twice and went into shin-high grass so thick that it would have been hard work just to get it out. The round was scrapped and he returned for a routine par. He made the rest look easy except for the 13th hole, where he hooked his tee shot into a eucalyptus tree, played a slice on the outer side of the trees and got up-and-down for par. “It was probably better than any of the birdies,” he said. He holed two chips for birdie, one of them on the toughest hole at Riviera on No. 12, birdied all three of the par 5s and made a pair of birdie putts from about 10 feet when he returned Friday morning. He said those six holes were the best the putter has felt in some time. “I was able to kind of figure out a way to feel some freedom in the stroke and I was able to roll a couple of those in,” he said. Woods is the tournament host with his foundation running the event he first played in 1992 as a 16-year-old amateur. Next year, the tournament gets elevated status on par with the Memorial (Jack Nicklaus) and Arnold Palmer Invitational by offering a three-year exemption to the winners, getting a 120-man field and offering $9.3 million in prize money. But the course has never been kind to him. Riviera is where Woods has played the most times as a pro (9) without ever winning.

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Four of the biggest names in sports are going to play a charity golf match. Intrigued? Isn’t everyone? So what else do we know — about format, about social distancing rules, about venue? We go through what we know and what still needs resolution.

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – There hasn’t been a hotel room named after him yet, but with a big smile, Viktor Hovland said there should be. Hovland has come to the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba as the two-time defending champion. His face is on highway advertisements, pop-up pictures at the airport and splashed around El Camaleón Golf Course. You quite literally cannot miss Hovland this week. And he’s fine with that. “It’s a little bit different, for sure, but I think it’s cool. I definitely feel welcomed when I come back here. It’s a place that means a lot to me,” said Hovland. “It’s the place that I played my first PGA TOUR event, won twice here, have a chance to win it again. Yeah, it’s just a really special place. “To be able to come back and kind of see that I have a place in history at this event is really cool.” Hovland won the 2020 edition of the World Wide Technology Championship with a score of 20 under, topping Aaron Wise by a shot. Last year he shot a tournament-record 23-under and won by four. His elite ball-striking saw him finish first in Greens in Regulation last season at Maykoba, while his putting improved tremendously – he went from T45 in Putts per Round in 2021 to T10 last year. His putting, he said, is something he’s been thrilled to see improve year over year. Hovland admitted he’s “not a big goal setter” in terms of results, but he’s been thrilled with his process efforts so far. He’s aiming to simplify things to have even more success. “I did a really good job the last one or two years to push the ceiling a little bit higher. I feel like I’m a way more impressive player now than I was when I first came out, but I need to, now, bring it back a little to get those shots that are more predictable. It doesn’t have to be flashy, or you don’t have to hit high draws because it looks nice on certain holes,” said Hovland. “I think that’s the main thing for me, because I’ve become a way better putter than I was the first two years (on TOUR) and I really feel like I’ve turned a corner around the greens as well. “I just need to get back to knowing where the ball’s going and it should be fun.” But what is it about Mayakoba, specifically, that fits his eye? Norway is a long way from the northern part of Playa Del Carmen. And funny enough, although the 25-year-old has had some recent success at El Camaleón, it wasn’t always that way. This event marked his PGA TOUR debut in 2018, and he missed the cut. He also missed the cut the following season before winning in back-to-back tries. Hovland’s home club in Oklahoma, Karsten Creek, reminds him a lot of El Camaleón. That helps, he said. There’s a trust there. “At the end of the day I think you’ve got to hit the ball straight, and with my iron play, I can give myself a lot of looks, and these greens are pretty flat and if I start the ball online, you can make a lot of putts,” said Hovland. “Just a great spot for me.” The three-time TOUR winner admitted there was, however, a fine line between confidence and expectation because of his recent success in Mayakoba. He compared it to when he was a sophomore at Oklahoma State and his squad was running through the NCAA schedule that year. It could be added pressure, but it could work to your advantage. “It comes back to if you’re feeling really confident about your game. I think the heightened pressure can kind of help you because it just almost hyper-focuses you to perform that week,” said Hovland. “But if you don’t have the skills to back it up for that week, it can also go the other way to where you’re trying to force things instead of it kind of naturally happening. I think it all depends on where the state of your game is. “I certainly don’t see it as a disadvantage this week.” Hovland’s effort this week in Mexico is the 13th time a golfer has gone for a three-peat since Steve Stricker at the John Deere Classic from 2009 to 2011. Stricker was the last man to win the same event three years running, and only three golfers in the last 40 years on TOUR have been able to pull the feat (Tiger Woods has done it six times, including two four-peats) so Hovland knows he’s in heaty company. Hovland’s playing competitors know how hard it’s going to be for him to win again this week. “You can go through a lot of the good shots you had from the previous year, but at the end of the day you’re still hitting the same shots as everyone else, and you’ve still got to make your putts,” said Collin Morikawa. “But there’s a lot to draw back on, which is always the best thing. When you’re able to draw back on good moments, good memories… it helps a lot. It’s big on your confidence.” Hovland, the back-to-back winner in Mexico, has got plenty of that heading into this year’s edition of the World Wide Technology Championship. And maybe if he’s back in the winner’s circle on Sunday, again, he might get that hotel room named after him after all.

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