Live leaderboard: Round 2 of Honda Classic

Far be it for me to tell you not to have a good time. After all, my Rule No. 1 of fantasy golf is to have fun. If you can’t get even that far, start over, because the rest of the experience is pointless otherwise. However, when we have a team competition directly in front of us, the advice is to only have fun. Shed the kinds of expectations you have during an individual event when golfers control their own destiny. Consider that the teams of Jason Day and Adam Scott, Patrick Cantlay and Patrick Reed, Joaquin Niemann and Dylan Frittelli, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, Tony Finau and Kyle Stanley, Cameron Champ and Sam Burns, Carlos Ortiz and Sebastián Muñoz, and Abraham Ancer and Jhonattan Vegas all missed the cut at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans … in 2019 alone. Even the inaugural team to win – Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt in 2017 – missed the cut in 2018 and 2019. RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | How it works Rule No. 2 is to listen and learn, but there’s really nothing to be logged for another time. Same can be said about the recent Match Play and for both the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. The success and failure you have likely will be coincidental because of the formats. The moral of the matter is to leave well enough alone. Stop short of judging your performance no matter how lucky or unlucky. It’s why I’ve always defaulted to a position as a fan in these events. There’s always next week. Speaking of which, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf takes this week off. It will resume with the Valspar Championship on April 29-May 2. So, this edition of the Fantasy Insider omits Draws and Fades. POWER RANKINGS WILD CARD Viktor Hovland & Kris Ventura (+3300) … Had this been contested in, say, October, the duo representing Norway would have been in the Power Rankings proper. However, Ventura has slumped in a big way since. He’s cashed just four times in his last 14 starts, none for a top 35. Meanwhile, Hovland’s consistency aligns directly with his profile as a balanced performer. He’s been rock-solid just about every time out. If necessary, he could carry this twosome and not feel any pressure. Odds sourced on Tuesday, April 20 at 5 a.m. ET. For live odds visit betmgm. RETURNING TO COMPETITION James Hahn … This is a good sign. He hasn’t played since an injured rib forced him to retire from The Honda Classic during his opening round. At 69th in the FedExCup and ninth in greens in regulation, teammate Martin Trainer is in a good place to make a dent in his own season. Trainer is just 3-for-16 and 214th in points. Both guys are making their debuts in the team competition, and it’s Trainer’s first-ever look at TPC Louisiana. Michael Kim … Walked off Harbour Town during his second round last week. An explanation wasn’t released. He dealt with a sore back on two different occasions in 2020 during which he failed to cash in all 15 starts. He opened 2021 with four cuts made in six starts, but he’s gone 0-for-4 since. He and former Cal-Berkeley teammate Brandon Hagy have joined forces this week. NOTABLE WDs Seamus Power … Tested positive for COVID-19. Alternate Zack Sucher assumes Power’s position as David Hearn’s teammate. Hearn and Power slotted No. 10 in my Power Rankings on Monday. Tyler McCumber … Second consecutive early withdrawal. No news has surfaced to explain why and, as of Tuesday afternoon, he hasn’t alerted his followers on social media. The 30-year-old has experienced an inconsistent but fruitful season. Currently 59th in the FedExCup, so he can be patient. Ryan Brehm … Currently 165th in the FedExCup with one top 25 (T11, Puerto Rico) among six cuts made in 10 starts. Lanto Griffin replaced him as Joel Dahmen’s teammate. Brehm owns the distinction of ranking second on TOUR in distance of all drives at 309.1 yards. Of course, Bryson DeChambeau (311.4 yards) is longest, but to name a few notables with muscle, Cameron Champ (3rd), Rory McIlroy (4th), Brooks Koepka (5th), Dustin Johnson (6th) and Matthew Wolff (8th) trail. Not too shabby for a 35-year-old. It doesn’t hurt that Brehm checks in at 6’4” and 220 pounds. POWER RANKINGS RECAP – RBC Heritage Power Ranking Golfer Result 1 Webb Simpson T9 2 Corey Conners T4 3 Daniel Berger T13 4 Patrick Cantlay MC 5 Brian Harman T13 6 Will Zalatoris T42 7 Tyrrell Hatton T39 8 Matt Fitzpatrick T4 9 Cameron Smith T9 10 Abraham Ancer T18 11 Matt Kuchar T18 12 Ian Poulter T48 13 Kevin Streelman T33 14 Harris English MC 15 Dustin Johnson T13 Wild Card Kevin Kisner MC SLEEPERS RECAP – RBC Heritage Golfer Result Doug Ghim T33 Chesson Hadley MC Russell Henley T9 William McGirt MC Chase Seiffert T42 BIRTHDAYS AMONG ACTIVE GOLFERS ON THE PGA TOUR April 20 … John Senden (50) April 21 … none April 22 … Eric Axley (47) April 23 … none April 24 … Jason Bohn (48); Lee Westwood (48); Jonas Blixt (37); Carlos Ortiz (30) April 25 … Nick Watney (40) April 26 … J.B. Holmes (39) Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21+ years of age or older to wager. CO, IA, IN,MI, NJ, NV,PA, TN, VA or WV only. Excludes Michigan Disassociated Persons. Please Gamble Responsibly. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700 (CO, NV, VA), 1-800-270-7117 for confidential help (MI), 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, PA & WV), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), Call or Text the Tennessee REDLINE: 800-889-9789 (TN), or call 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN).

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DUBLIN, Ohio — Tiger Woods got off to a slower start than he would have liked Thursday at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. That had more do with a stopwatch than a scorecard. Ryan Moore opened with five birdies in seven holes and never missed a fairway after the first one, posting a 7-under 65 for his best start in his 14th appearance at Muirfield Village. He was one shot ahead of Jordan Spieth, who chipped in for birdie, chipped in for par and holed a 35-foot eagle putt. Woods made a pair of late birdies to salvage a 70 in his first round since missing the cut at the PGA Championship. He played his back nine in a foursome with Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose and a rules official in a cart timing them because they were so far out of position. “We were on the clock most of the back nine,” Woods said. “That made things a little more complicated.” Getting caught up wasn’t easy with various tee shots in water hazards, though it was obvious how far behind they were. Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas were in the group ahead of them, and McIlroy hit his tee shot on the par-4 second into a backyard. With no official nearby, he had to walk 300 yards back to the tee to hit again. That took time. Still, walking off the fourth green, the group of Woods, DeChambeau and Rose still had not reached the third tee. Golf still is measured by score, and Moore had the lowest on a rain-softened Muirfield Village. Only two of his seven birdies were longer than 10 feet, and the only time he came close to a bogey was on his opening hole, where he saved par with a 6-foot putt. He was among 22 players who broke 70, and only 44 players broke par despite the soft conditions. Phil Mickelson, using two drivers this week to go after longer tee shots on a half-dozen holes, opened with a 70. Spieth looked as though he couldn’t miss for the longest time. On his second hole, the par-5 11th, his wedge came up so short on a soft green that it spun off the front. He chipped in from 50 feet for birdie. Another chip from thick rough caught the slope on the back of the par-5 15th green and rolled down to 3 feet for a birdie. He went out in 32, made an 8-foot birdie putt on No. 3 and then had consecutive holes that illustrated how his round was going. On the par-3 fourth, his tee shot was buried in the slope of a mound above the bunker. With his feet well below the ball, he hooked it out onto and across the green into more rough, and then chipped in for par. On the par-5 fifth, his hybrid caught the right side of the green and he rolled in the long eagle putt. Spieth took only 22 putts for the round. And then his luck ran out with a tee shot that plugged into the sand left of the green on the par-3 eighth, leaving him two options: go at the pin and run off the green into rough, or aim away from the flag and leave a 60-foot putt for par. He chose the latter and came inches within making it. “Sooner or later, it was going to bite me,” Spieth said with a smile. Even so, he had no complaints. “Six under around Muirfield I’d take any day of the week, no matter what form you’re coming into it with,” he said. “I felt like I hit more fairways today, gave me some more opportunities, and the putter stayed hot.” Thomas, in his first tournament since the Masters because of a bone bruise in his right wrist, showed plenty of rust in his round of 71. McIlroy had a 75 with two double bogeys, both from tee shots either lost (No. 15) or out-of-bounds (No. 2). Anirban Lahiri, Marc Leishman and Martin Kaymer were at 67. Woods made birdies on all but one of the par 5s. His regret was a few loose iron shots that led to bogey, especially on the 13th when he hit 9-iron from the fairway into a bunker that led to a careless bogey. But he finished strong — eventually — and while 10 players from his side of the draw broke 70, he wasn’t too far behind. At least on the leaderboard. “That was frustrating, because the last eight holes we were on the clock,” Woods said. “The group ahead of us … JT doesn’t take a lot of time, Rory plays quick and Jordan was 7 under. So they were obviously playing fast. And we were obviously not.”

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Tiger Woods hit 11 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in a second-round 66 to move from a tie for 25th to a tie for eighth at the WGC-Mexico Championship, where Dustin Johnson leads.

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