Leaderboard: Second round of Sony Open

The PGA TOUR visits a classic venue, the Seth Raynor-designed Waialae Country Club, for this week's Sony Open in Hawaii. Several big names made the short trip from Honolulu to Maui after competing in last week's Sentry Tournament of Champions, while the majority of the field is making its first start of the calendar year. RELATED: Full tee times Below are some of the players to keep an eye on this week, including Sentry champion Harris English, the man he beat in a sudden-death playoff (Joaquin Niemann) and defending champion Cameron Smith. We've assembled our team of writers to answer a question about each Featured Group, as well. Enjoy. THURSDAY Collin Morikawa, Webb Simpson, Marc Leishman – Leishman is 37. Webb is 35. Collin is just 23. What will Collin's resume look like when he's 36? SEAN MARTIN: For reference, Dustin Johnson is 36 years old. He's also a generational talent. He has 24 wins, including two majors. Morikawa is already ahead of Johnson's pace - DJ didn't win a major until 2016 - but I think anything over 15 wins and two majors is a big success for Morikawa. That's a resume that will get in the World Golf Hall of Fame, after all. CAMERON MORFIT: Impossible to say, but Morikawa is such a special case because his mental game is as sharp as his iron play. I'm confident in saying he'll have at least 10 TOUR wins by then, and we'll see him representing the Stars and Stripes on multiple Ryder and Presidents Cup teams. Also, he's so good from tee to green, like Garcia, that I'm going to say Morikawa wins THE PLAYERS Championship somewhere in there, too. BEN EVERILL: Double digit TOUR wins is on his horizon and I wouldn't be surprised if he follows in Dustin Johnson's footsteps by way of winning at least once every season. I think he will be a major presence in the big tournaments and perhaps jag a few more but history shows you can be one of the best and still have the stars not align in those. Sergio Garcia, Joaquin Niemann, Hideki Matsuyama – Matsuyama tied for last at Kapalua. Niemann tied for first (before losing in a playoff). Matsuyama is 21st in the world ranking. Niemann is 31st. Who ends 2021 ranked higher? MARTIN: Niemann is trending in the right direction, with seven top-25s in his last nine starts, but I'm not selling Matsuyama yet. He and Niemann both tied for third at the BMW and Matsuyama also was runner-up at the recent Vivint Houston Open. It was an awful putting performance last week but I think his ball-striking is enough to keep him among the game's elite. MORFIT: Matsuyama is dangerous at the Sony, where he went 74-67-67-66 for T12 last year, but I'm going to have to go with Niemann based on their massive disparity on the greens. Matsuyama needs to figure something out with the putter; Niemann is already there. EVERILL: Man, this is a tough call. I'm all in on Niemann being a star and rising through the ranks but Hideki is usually so rock solid. I expect a bounce back from Matsuyama this week. Kapalua greens are not for him. And he has Phoenix coming up. So Hideki - but just. FRIDAY Carlos Ortiz, Sungjae Im, Cameron Smith – They're Nos. 16, 17 and eight in the FedExCup, respectively. Who finishes the season ranked highest? MARTIN: Sungjae Im. The Super Season means more opportunities for golf's iron man. He seems to have turned things around after struggling for a few months. He was T5 at the Sentry in addition to his runner-up at the Masters. MORFIT: Im looks like he could be lining up for a massive season, and I see he's No. 1 in this week's Power Rankings. Still, I'll go ahead and pick Ortiz here on the theory that he's streaky and dangerous once he's full of self-belief, as he was when he won three times in one season on the Korn Ferry Tour. EVERILL: Smith. This is certainly with some bias as Im is no doubt going to play more and have a chance at more points but I think Smith will shake off some of his mid-season lethargy this time around and finish high in some big events. He was runner-up at the Masters (along with Im), after all. Harris English, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar – Who has more wins in the remainder of the season? English or Kuchar and Scott combined? MARTIN: English. To be honest, this win probably should have come sooner. His 11 top-10s since the start of last season are the third-most on TOUR (behind only Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau). I expect another win out of him this season, while I'm not sure we can say the same about Scott and Kuchar. Scott's win at last year's Genesis was his first since 2016, and Kuchar has been winless in five of the last six seasons. MORFIT: English is going to have a big year, and I'll say he has more wins than those other two guys combined. In a way, he's riding a hot streak of two straight wins after his victory with Kuchar in the (unofficial) QBE Shootout. And I think it's very possible English will win the Sony, where he had three straight top-10 finishes from 2013-15. EVERILL: I rate English highly after seeing him close up last week but if the measure is from now on - I'll go with Scott/Kuchar. And by that I mean Adam Scott. I see Scotty winning again this season and while English is by all means capable, multiple-win seasons are hard to come by.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Phil Mickelson was 11 shots worse than his previous round at Quail Hollow. Bryson DeChambeau made an 8 on his 16th hole and headed straight for the exit. RELATED: Leaderboard | Rory McIlroy makes move at Wells Fargo Championship Turns out nothing was as bad as it seemed Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship. Morning gusts gave way to a relentless wind in the afternoon and had just about everyone trying to finish without too much damage. Former U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland had a 2-under 69 in the morning and shared the 36-hole lead with Matt Wallace (67) and Patrick Rodgers (68). No one in the afternoon could catch them at 6-under 136. Rory McIlroy will be playing on the weekend for the first time in two months. He shot a 66, and by the end of the day, that was good for a tie for fifth, two shots out of the lead. As for Mickelson? Never mind that he followed a 64 with a 75, losing a little focus at the end when different swing thoughts entered his head on holes with water, the wrong kind of ripple effect. “I’m excited to be in contention heading into the weekend, and I know I’m playing well,” Mickelson said. DeChambeau had reason to leave. Two balls in the water on the par-5 seventh led to his triple bogey and sent him to a 74. He was just inside the top 100 when he left without speaking. And then the wind arrived, the scores shot up and he made the cut on the number at 2-over 144. “The hardest conditions I’ve played in a while,” Justin Thomas said after a 73 that included a three-putt double bogey on the par-3 13th. His downhill putt from 18 feet caught a gust so strong it stopped 4 feet short. “Even the downwind holes were hard,” said Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, who has lived in Texas the last 12 years where he described typical conditions as “windy or windier.” Being used to it doesn’t make it easy, though Ortiz managed a 68, the best score in the afternoon. That left him in the group at 4-under 138. Mickelson was in the group another shot behind, determined to put an end to a drought so severe that he hasn’t finished among the top 20 in nine months. Everything felt and looked so easy when he opened with a 64. This was more of a challenge, particularly late in the round, and Mickelson felt his focus lapsing again. He hit into the water on the 14th while deciding whether to hit a draw or a cut (he still managed par; his wedge game is still among the best). After a good tee shot on the par-5 16th, Mickelson wasn’t quite sure what to do with his next one. He pulled it well right of the green, and his high flop shot landed too far and went over the edge. He chipped poorly to about 12 feet and turned what looked to be a sure birdie into a bad bogey. Two holes later, he found the water on the par-5 17th for a double bogey. “The back nine, I just wasn’t sharp,” Mickelson said. “I think an example of what I’ve been talking about is on 17, we’re standing over the ball and I’m changing my mind and I’m changing the shot, moving the clubhead a little bit. Instead of backing away and kind of refocusing, I just hit it and I’m not really aware of what I’m doing. So I’ve got to fix that.” In his mind, he threw away two shots on both the 15th and 17th holes, the difference of a score at par. “I just can’t keep doing that,” Mickelson said. “I’m optimistic for the weekend, though. McIlroy started the second round outside the projected cut line. He has not made it to the weekend since Bay Hill two months ago, which is factual and lacking context. That amounts to only three tournaments — missed cuts at THE PLAYERS Championship and Masters, not advancing from his group at WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. He turned it around quickly, starting with one of his few bad drives. This one on the 14th sailed well to the right of the bunkers, gallery, everything but the mansions just outside the property. He tried to land his wedge anywhere near the green, and just his good fortune, it trundled onto the putting surface and stopped a foot away. That sent him to five birdies over his next eight holes, and right in the mix. “That was probably the catalyst to going on a nice little run,” McIlroy said. Woodland was all smiles. He missed the cut badly last week at Innisbrook, called Butch Harmon and decided to go back to his previous coaches, Harmon and Pete Cowen. It didn’t take long for him to feel better. His hip isn’t bothering him and his swing feels great. Woodland still hasn’t figured out the final stretch, Nos. 16-18, playing them in 3 over through two rounds. But he likes where he’s headed. “I’ve seen some shots this week that I just haven’t seen in a long time,” he said. “The golf swing feels so much better. Confidence has gone way up, which I did not have really in the last year. … It’s exciting right now.” Not so excited was Jon Rahm. He made a late charge until finishing with two bogeys for a 70 to miss the cut for the first time in 11 months.

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HONOLULU – Australian Matt Jones was getting attention last week after a record breaking 23 under weekend in Maui, but even a favorable ruling and resulting great par save in Honolulu wasn’t enough to get the two-time PGA TOUR winner to the weekend. Jones hit his approach shot on the par-4 8th hole at Waialae Country Club just above the lip of a greenside bunker in Friday’s second round of the Sony Open, forcing him into a strange stance with one foot in and one foot out of the sand. Scrambling to try to make the cut Jones faced a stance where his body dropped well below its usual position meaning the only way he could make a stroke was by gripping halfway down his 3-wood and creating a putting like motion. However, this meant the end of the club was running up Jones’ left arm, leaving the 2021 Honda Classic winner worried he might be accused of anchoring. “I had a stance that was very unconventional and I had to grip a long way down the shaft. I just wanted to check it wasn’t classified as anchoring because as we know anchoring is somewhat banned,” Jones explained after rounds of 70-68. Jones called in Senior Tournament Referee Stephen Cox for clarification and was given the all-clear by the veteran official. “It was very easy for Coxy to see I wasn’t trying to subvert any rules,” Jones added. “I was trying to play it kind of across my body. It was more running up my arm and in between arm and body but during the stroke it kind of got over to my left side so I just wanted to be sure before I did anything.” Cox spent a minute or so with Jones running through the scenario which coincidentally had happened over on the first green with Lucas Glover and another official earlier in the round and as such had been a point of discussion amongst the committee. “The awkward nature of Matt’s stance resulted in him gripping the club down the shaft and as a result the club was going to extend beyond the forearm and might touch the upper arm or the side of the body while making the stroke,” Cox added. “I felt that as he was not deliberately holding the club against a part of the body above the forearm it would not be considered anchoring. Any accidental contact during the stroke is not prohibited by the Rule.” Rule 10.1b. outlaws players using an anchor point for a stroke or from making deliberate contact with their clothing during a stroke. However inadvertent contact is specifically not a breach to ensure circumstances just like those Jones and Glover faced are not penalized. The Australian also mentioned some minor exposure of bunker lining in his discussion with Cox but it was of no consequence. “Matt also had questions relating the to the bunker liner which was not considered abnormal,” Cox confirmed. “As per PGA TOUR Local Rules, exposed bunker liners may be treated as ground under repair for lie of ball or area of intended swing but no relief is provided for stance.”

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