Matt Fitzpatrick got his major moment on the last hole of the U.S. Open

ORLANDO, Fla. — Corey Conners spent more time grinding out pars than chasing birdies, and that proved to be the right recipe Friday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard as Bay Hill began to bake under a warm sun. RELATED: Leaderboard | A tale of two Cowboys at Bay Hill Conners surged into the lead with a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 16th hole — his second eagle on that hole in two days — for a 3-under 69 and a one-shot advantage over former Bay Hill winner Martin Laird (67). Rory McIlroy was poised to at least join Conners in the afternoon until he hit a couple of loose drives that cost him one shot when he could only pitch back to the fairway, leading to bogeys. He closed with five straight pars for a 71 that he figures could have been worse. “It could have been the round that I could have shot 74 or 75. I got in with 71 and pretty happy with that,” McIlroy said. He was two shots behind, along with Viktor Hovland and Lanto Griffin, who each had a 68. Jordan Spieth remained in the mix going into the weekend, which is becoming a regularity in the last month as he tries to end more than three years without winning. Spieth hit a superb flop shot over the bunker to a fast green that rolled out to a foot to escape with par and a 69. Conners was at 9-under 135, and now everyone braces for the weather. The forecast featured plenty of rain Saturday, which figures to make Bay Hill play longer and tougher, while also keeping the greens from getting as crusty as they were last year when Tyrrell Hatton won with a closing 74. “We’ll just see what happens and be ready for anything,” Conners said. Hatton at least gets a chance on the weekend. He opened with a 77 and was 10 shots better Friday, a 67 that allowed him to make the cut with one shot to spare. Also making the cut were both Ryder Cup captains — Padraig Harrington of Ireland with a 74 to be nine shots behind, Steve Stricker with a 71 that left him one shot better. Conners, whose lone PGA TOUR victory came two years ago at the Valero Texas Open, saved par seven times during his round, the exception coming at the par-3 second hole when he came up short of the green, some 80 feet away, and wound up missing his par putt from 10 feet. Otherwise, the Canadian has been solid. This is only the second time he has held the lead going into the weekend, the other occasion at the Valspar Championship in 2018 when his bid to go wire-to-wire ended with a 77 in the final round. “I haven’t really been in this position a lot, but I have a lot of confidence in my game and feeling really relaxed the last few days, so try and keep that going,” Conners said. “I feel like I have a lot of energy. I had an off week last week and really excited for the weekend.” Laird has recent success winning on a familiar course. In the fall, he ended seven years without a victory by winning in Las Vegas, scene of his first PGA TOUR victory in 2009. He won at Bay Hill in 2011 on a final round so tough a 75 was enough to get the job done. Now there are plenty of others in the mix. U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau overcame consecutive bogeys at the end of his front nine and shot 71. He was three shots behind. Another shot back were Spieth, Justin Rose (68), Sunjae Im (70) and Paul Casey (69). Hatton wasn’t the only player who saw a big improvement. Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand had the low round of the tournament with a 65, which was 10 shots better than his first round. Jason Day looked to be in much better shape than seven shots behind. He played in the morning, had a pair of birdies and came to the 16th, the easiest at Bay Hill. He lost his tee shot to the right and had to use binoculars and the zoom lens of a camera to make sure the ball stuck in the tree was his. That led to a double bogey, and he took another double bogey on the 18th hole by taking four to get down from a bunker. “A little unfortunate that it got stuck. It was literally in a nest,” Day said. “So I think mama birdy is going to come back and find another egg there.”

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SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods brought big crowds back to golf, and he even produced a few big roars. In his first PGA TOUR event in a year because of a fourth back surgery, Woods mixed a few mistakes with a few shots that looked familiar Thursday on his way to an even-par 72 in the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open. “It was fun to compete again. It was fun to be out there,” Woods said. But he was seven shots behind Tony Finau, who led with a 65 on the North Course at Torrey Pines, and Woods will play that course on Friday on the bubble to make the cut. With virtually no wind on a day for reasonable scoring, he was tied for 84th. Woods was steady on the South Course, and at times spectacular. His three birdie putts were from a combined 30 inches. The longest of his birdie putt was from just inside 2 feet on No. 10 that got him back to even par for the round. He was one rotation away from making a long eagle putt on the par-5 sixth. What really made the gallery delirious was his 6-iron on par-3 16th hole that rolled toward the hole and broke just in front of the cup, settling 8 inches away. With the sun starting to set behind the Pacific, it was hard for him to see. “It felt good, looked good, and then we were listening for some noise,” Woods said. But he needed those three birdies to offset his mistakes, and the sobering part of his return is that Woods didn’t make a putt longer than 4 feet. That was on the second hole, when his approach from the bunker landed 6 feet behind the hole and went over the back into light rough. He also gave away a shot on the par-5 13th, when he laid up from the rough and hit a wedge that drifted right and went into the bunker. He blasted that out to 3 feet, which was the hard part. And then he missed the short par putt. Woods made his other two bogeys from greenside bunkers, both times missing 12-foot putts. He played the par 5s in even par, and didn’t give himself any other birdie chances inside 15 feet. “It’s hard to make a lot of birdies when you’re not giving yourself any looks, and I didn’t do that today,” Woods said. “Tomorrow, hopefully, I’ll drive a little better, get my irons obviously a lot closer and we get the better of the two greens tomorrow. So we’ll see what happens.” But there was no mistaking his presence. Fans lined both sides of the opening fairway in anticipation of seeing Woods, who was playing the PGA TOUR for only the second time since August 2015. That was right before he had a second and third surgery on his back, which kept him away for some 15 months. He returned at Torrey Pines last year and opened with a 76 on his way to missing the cut. A week later, he withdrew after a 77 in Dubai with back spasms and was gone again. Regardless of the score, Woods looked as though he’s back for the long haul. The fusion surgery eliminated the pain. And while he wasn’t sharp, Woods hit the ball plenty far and saw at least a little bit of golf that made him such a dominant figure. The South Course, which hosted the 2008 U.S. Open that Woods won, typically is far stronger than the North at Torrey Pines. That’s no longer the case with the North getting a makeover two years ago, with bent greens that are firm this week and narrower fairways. The average score on the South was 71.62, compared with 71.31 on the North. Finau birdied his opening two holes to set the tone for his round, and he wound up with nine birdies, the last one from 35 feet to take the lead. “It played a lot tougher than it did in the past,” Finau said. “I think it’s just a credit to my start. From there I was just able to let the golf course come to me. The par 5s are very reachable for me hitting some irons in there. Again, I think it was just my start. I got off to a good start and was able to ride that momentum all the way through the round.” He had a one-shot lead over Ryan Palmer and Ted Potter Jr., who each had a 66 on the South. Defending champion Jon Rahm, who can reach No. 1 in the world by winning, opened with a 68 on the South. He hit into the water with his second shot on the par-5 18th, but he saved par with a 15-foot putt. “Just unfortunate it happened, but I made a good putt, had a couple really good putts down the stretch and had a good finish,” Rahm said. “Good momentum going to tomorrow.”

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Patrick Reed could be in for a long week in Australia in the aftermath of a rules-breaking controversy that occurred Friday at the Hero World Challenge.

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