Live leaderboard: Round 2 of Dell Technologies

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR released today the four featured groupings for Thursday-Friday at this week’s inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. Full groupings and starting times for the first two rounds at the Rocket Mortgage Classic will be released officially at approximately 12 p.m. ET on Tuesday, June 25th. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, 1-2:45 p.m. (GC), 3-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. (featured groups), 3-6 p.m. (featured holes). International subscribers (via GOLF.tv): Thursday-Friday, 11:030 to 22:00 GMT. Saturday-Sunday, 13:00 to 22:00. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com). Dustin Johnson, Chez Reavie, Patrick Reed • Johnson is No. 2 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 7 in the FedExCup standings • Reavie won last week’s Travelers Championship, his first TOUR title in 11 years, to move to No. 12 in the FedExCup standings • Reed, who has qualified for the TOUR Championship in five straight seasons (2014-18), sits outside the top 70 in the FedExCup (No. 73) Gary Woodland, Keith Mitchell, Brandt Snedeker • Woodland, making his first start since capturing the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, is No. 5 in the FedExCup standings and seventh in the U.S. Presidents Cup Team standings • Mitchell, the winner of The Honda Classic earlier this year, is No. 30 in the FedExCup standings • Snedeker – the 2012 FedExCup champion – shot 59 en route to winning the 2018 Wyndham Championship, contested at another Donald Ross course, Sedgefield Country Club Rickie Fowler, Charles Howell III, Kevin Kisner • All three players have wins in the 2018-19 PGA TOUR season and are inside the top 20 in both the FedExCup and the U.S. Presidents Cup Team standings • Fowler, a Rocket Mortgage ambassador, is 10th in the FedExCup and ninth in the U.S. Presidents Cup Team standings • Howell is 15th in the FedExCup and 16th in the U.S. Presidents Cup Team standings on the strength of a victory at the 2018 RSM Classic • Kisner won the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in March and sits 17th in the FedExCup and 15th in the U.S. Presidents Cup Team standings Bubba Watson, Hideki Matsuyama, Billy Horschel • All three TOUR Championship regulars sit outside the top 30 in the FedExCup standings • Watson, 71st in the FedExCup standings, has qualified for the TOUR Championship in eight of the last 11 seasons • Matsuyama is 34th in the FedExCup standings and looks to extend his streak of TOUR Championship appearances to six in 2019; currently fourth in the International Presidents Cup Team standings • Horschel, the 2014 FedExCup champion, is 54th in the FedExCup standings after qualifying for the TOUR Championship in three of the last six years

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KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Buckle up. This could be a wild ride. The PGA Championship returns to Kiawah Island this week but there’s one big difference from 2012. Nine years ago, this event was held in August. That means a much different challenge awaits this year’s field. RELATED: Nine things to know about Kiawah Island | Morikawa’s shot ‘heard round the world’ | Spieth eyes career Grand Slam When Rory McIlroy destroyed the field with his eight-shot win in 2012 he was aided by summer storms that softened up the Ocean Course significantly over the weekend. There was also a searing swampy heat well into the 90s that felt like triple digits. And the winds never blew at full strength. Weather forecasts are fickle, of course, but on the eve of this PGA Championship there is a 0% percent chance of rain, the temperatures are expected to be in the high 70s most of the week and the wind is due to sit around 15 mph with gusts towards the mid 20s. The wind will start the tournament out of the east and move to the northeast before flipping for the final round. The Ocean Course is laid out in two nine-hole loops like a figure-eight. The first four holes head east before turning back toward the clubhouse. On the back nine, Nos. 10-13 continue west before turning back toward the clubhouse for the final five holes. The par-3 fifth is the only hole that moves south. The forecast for the first three days predicts players will have a tough start and finish to their rounds. Nos. 1-4 and 14-18 play predominantly into the wind. The eight holes in the middle will be downwind. But that will flip around come Sunday. At 7,867 yards, the course is the longest in major history but it won’t play to that yardage. Each hole’s yardage can change dramatically from day to day. Because of the high winds and their changing direction, Pete Dye built a variety of tees on each hole. “It’ll totally depend on Mother Nature. We’ll make that decision each morning as we set it up. Hopefully, it’ll be fun and fair,” setup guru Kerry Haigh said. Current PLAYERS champion and 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas says there’s no chance they can see the yardage top out with the wind forecast. “I noticed it last week when someone sent me a scorecard and I saw that the back nine was 4,000 yards, and I think I actually laughed out loud when I saw it because I was looking at the numbers,” Thomas said. Because there is no prevailing wind at Kiawah Island, a downwind hole can play into the wind the next day. During a practice round, Thomas hit 8-iron for his second shot on the 590-yard, par-5 seventh hole when it played downwind. “The 590 yards can play 500 or 490 yards when you get that much wind,” Thomas said. “They can’t play 14, that par-3, from the back (tees) if you have this wind. … Guys are going to be literally hitting driver on that hole. Unless the PGA wants seven-hour rounds, I wouldn’t advise it.” Jon Rahm played a practice round with two-time major winner Zach Johnson and said the American pulled headcover for almost every approach shot that played into the wind. Rahm called Kiawah’s breezes a “heavy wind,” one that plays more severe than the speed might suggest. The par-3 17th, at 223 yards, is another brute if the wind is up. Cameron Champ, a known long-ball hitter, tried unsuccessfully to get his 4-iron and 3-hybrid to the green in Tuesday practice, instead ending up in water. He will look to add a 2-iron to his bag now. Dye’s design is, as usual, one that gives the player who figures out the optimum strategy, and is able to execute that strategy, the advantage. While length is always an advantage, much like Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, it isn’t the overriding factor. You have to miss in the right spots or face terror. “There’s plenty of room, it’s very fair, but the consequence of a miss is huge around here, especially when you get into these outer sandy areas where the lies are very unpredictable,” Adam Scott says. “Just getting it back in play, … sometimes you can’t even manage to do that. If the wind blows this way for the rest of the week, it’s going to be a battle to just get in the clubhouse.” The new date also will impact the paspalum grass and what players do face when they miss greens. Because of the wind, Dye built large greens at Kiawah Island but the field hit just 56% of them in 2012. They were the fifth-hardest greens to hit that season. “It’s not going to be as easy around the greens,” McIlroy said. “Last time in August it was hot, humid, the paspalum was … really strong and dense and lush. The ball would just sit right up on top and it was so easy to just get your lob wedge out, clip it, spin it. “This year they’re a little more bare, a touch links-y in places, especially with the wind and the dry weather. I don’t think it’s going to be quite as simple as it was around the greens like last time. That’s what I did so well. I chipped and putted so well that week. That’s what won me the tournament. I scrambled well, and if the wind keeps up like this again this week, that’s what you’re going to have do well.” Being beachside also means plenty of sand. The PGA of America had decided that all of those sandy areas at the Ocean Course are not being treated as bunkers. They are waste areas, instead, so players can take practice swings and ground their club. A day at the beach is normally a reason to smile. That may not be the case at Kiawah Island.

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Charles Barkley, who finished in a tie for 76th at the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament last year, is drawing bets to finish in the top 70 this year. Said Stephen Curry, however: “There’s no way he’s doing it.”

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