Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, Round 2: Leaderboard, tee times, TV times

OLYMPIA FIELDS, Ill. - The players will deny it but there were reports a collective of them snuck back out on to Olympia Fields post round on Friday to perform a rain dance. With the former U.S. Open venue playing just like it would for a national championship, just two players sit under par after 36 holes. The hard and fast fairways and greens and tricky rough see only FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay at one under. Just two others, last week's champion and current FedExCup leader Dustin Johnson plus Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, are level par. The other 65 players are licking their wounds and praying for rain. And chances are they might get it. Forecasts gave a 60 percent chance of storms and some rain overnight. Of course that means a 40 percent chance of none. And McIlroy for one hope that's the case. RELATED: Full leaderboard | Cantlay, Scott position themselves for TOUR Championship push The champion of last year's season-long race is happy that this represents the fewest players under par through two rounds in a non-major since 2000. This despite dropping two shots in his last five holes. The scoring average through two rounds is 72.775 on the par-70 layout. "I said last week after the tournament, if you need someone to shoot between like even par and 2-under, I’m your man, so I’m loving these conditions," he said. "This is proper golf. This is you’ve really got to think about stuff, you’ve got to land it on your numbers, you’ve got to put it in play. Those sort of five-, six-footers for pars to sort of keep the momentum going is huge. It’s nice to play a round of golf like that again." McIlroy is obviously pleased to be where he stands at the halfway mark but expects those from back in the pack to come after those with a current advantage. If the course does get a little moisture from either rain or maintenance watering the greens it is likely to dry up as the day progresses. "We’re supposed to get a little bit of rain tonight, but I don’t think enough to really soften it. I think you’ll see over the weekend guys will go off early, be able to shoot some decent scores, and then as the day goes on and the later tee times get out there, it’ll just get progressively harder as the day goes on," McIlroy said. "I think something like remember THE PLAYERS Championship when it was back in May, guys would go out on a Sunday, six or seven back, shoot a 66 and they’d hang around the clubhouse all day and wait and see what happens to the guys on the way in. I think you might see something similar to that this weekend." Johnson won last week's THE NORTHERN TRUST at 30 under par. He knows the winner might be lucky to be three under this week. A long birdie on the last hole Friday brought him level and in contention to go back-to-back in the Playoffs. Both he and McIlroy share a record five FedExCup Playoff wins so far in their career. "It's a completely different golf course, completely different conditions. It’s firm and fast, and it’s a lot of fun to play this kind of golf. I like it. It’s very difficult, but you’ve got to stay focused all day long, and you’ve really got to pick and choose your spots where you can be a little bit aggressive," Johnson said of the contrast that saw the field a collective 383 over par through two rounds. "Last week was fun, too. But this week is more of a grind, that’s for sure. Every single hole out here is difficult. You’ve got to really be focused on every shot that you hit." Matsuyama is the only player in the field to reach four under throughout the tournament thus far, doing so with a sublime chip in for a birdie on the par-3 eighth hole on Friday. Unfortunately, it was his final highlight and four bogeys followed. "I wasn’t able to drive the ball well today, so it was a tough round," he said. "I’m just happy that I’m in position where I can contend on the weekend." Cantlay needed a hole-out eagle, a chip-in birdie and a 42-foot birdie putt on the last hole to keep his total under par. The two-time winner knows he can't rely on that over the final 36 holes. "The golf course is really, really good, but it’s very, very difficult. The chip-ins obviously helped a bunch, and you don’t do that every day, so I need to hit it a little better on the weekend. But for a scrambling day, it was excellent," Cantlay mused. "It’s about as stiff of a test as you would want. It’s very, very difficult, and you have to play from the fairway, and you have to play from below the hole, frankly. The greens have so much slope on them that you really need to be putting uphill, and so if you’re in the rough, it gets exponentially harder to do that." The former UCLA standout believes the key to victory will be keeping a level head. "You’ve got to realize that you’re going to make mistakes," he explained. "You’re going to make some bogeys just because of how hard the golf course is, and always having a forward mindset as opposed to thinking about what’s happened or what the mistakes you’ve made is really important." Those who dwell on mistakes will be no doubt forever mired in the clouds... and not the rain clouds they desire.

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Robert Garrigus is a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs, who ended a 108-year world championship drought last fall. He feels a special kinship with recently retired catcher David Ross, too. Not because of that home run he hit that helped clinch the title in Game 7 of the World Series, though. Actually, Garrigus likes Ross because he can relate to what the baseball player went through as he competed on the most recent season of “Dancing With The Stars.â€� He didn’t win a mirror ball trophy either — Ross ended up a surprising second to former NFL running back Rashad Jennings. But Garrigus was impressed with Ross’ effort because he knows what it takes.  “(He was) kicking butt,â€� Garrigus said. “… I admire him for that.â€� Garrigus, you see, took ballroom dancing lessons with his wife Ami several years ago. Dances like the waltz and the salsa and the cha cha  became second nature to the couple. “It was my wife’s idea for sure, but I was like, you know what, that’s not a horrible idea,â€� Garrigus said. “I was willing to do it just because I thought it would be a lot of fun just to be with her and focus on something other than golf and the crazy life that we have.  “It was definitely a lot of fun.â€� Garrigus admits to feeling self-conscious at first. But then he realized that everyone else on the dance floor was busy doing his or her own thing, rather than watching him. “It’s a very enjoyable thing to do,â€� said Garrigus, who won the 2010 Children’s Miracle Network Classic. And as it turned out, learning the intricate steps at the dance studio isn’t that different than the thought process Garrigus goes through when he’s trying to hit a draw or a fade. “It was almost like golf shots, like you’re focusing on technique and executing and stuff,â€� Garrigus explained. Garrigus and his wife Ami, who have two sons, actually enjoyed dancing so much they thought about competing. But the competitions at their studio were usually held on weeks when he was playing on the PGA TOUR. When he was home, though, Garrigus and his wife went out to dance as often as twice a week.  They got to be pretty smooth, too. “It’s just funny how you can work around the room when there’s a bunch of people in there,â€� he said. Garrigus said the couple took nearly 30 lessons. Even though they’ve quit going to the classes, the two still like to put on their dancing shoes – Robert’s are brown and white, like “old-school 50s shoes,â€� he says – and hit the floor. One of their favorite spots is an outdoor music venue in Providence, Rhode Island. It’s a must-stop for Garrigus when he advances to the second round of the FedExCup Playoffs. “And sometimes if we’re in Vegas, there’s places where you can go and dance,â€� he said. “Not like it’s crazy dancing with the kids but you can go out and hang with people your age at a piano bar and dance. “We’ve started not to worry about what everybody is thinking. Just go out and have fun. I guess that’s what it’s all about.â€� And his favorite dance? There are elements of the waltz that he enjoys but the salsa wins out over all the dances Garrigus and his wife learned. “It was kind of upbeat and kind of gave us a little bit of a workout, too,â€� he explained. “Salsa was our favorite, for sure.” While he leaves the “flash and the hipsâ€� to the instructors, Garrigus is up for any challenge. And he once showed off his salsa skills to settle a bet on the range. “He was like, you know how to salsa?  He’s like, show me,â€� Garrigus said with a smile. “I was like, I’ll do it myself right here.â€� Suffice it to say, Garrigus won the bet. And ballroom dancing has definitely won him over, too. “We ended up getting pretty good and enjoying it, having a lot of fun with it,â€� Garrigus said. Can “Dancing With The Starsâ€� be next on the horizon? 

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