Rory McIlroy takes 54-hole lead at THE CJ CUP

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — The way golf has been going the last few years, it would be reasonable to see the name “Johnson” atop the leaderboard and assume it belonged to the No. 1 player in the world. But not necessarily at The Open Championship. Zach Johnson — not Dustin — already has his name on the claret jug. And the way he handled the rain Friday in his round of 4-under 67, he might have a chance to see it on that precious silver trophy again. Johnson holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th and had a one-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood at the midway point of the second round. Fleetwood, the top player on the European Tour last year, put together the best round of the week at Carnoustie with a 65. Rory McIlroy had another 69 and was two shots behind. Johnson was at 6-under 136, and had to wait to see if it would hold up. Kevin Kisner, the 18-hole leader, was among the late starters. The light rain from overnight never let up. It wasn’t enough to turn the color of grass from brown to green, just enough to be a nuisance playing in rain gear, with towels hanging from the inside of umbrella to stay dry and putting surfaces that were slightly slower. Johnson overcame a bogey on the opening hole with birdies on the third and fourth holes, and he never put himself under too much pressure the rest of the way. Already a two-time major champion with titles at St. Andrews and Augusta National, the 42-year-old from Iowa now has made the cut 12 straight times at The Open, a streak that began at Carnoustie in 2007. His low ball flight, grinding nature and good putting give him the right ingredients. As for that other Johnson? Dustin Johnson was headed toward being the first No. 1 player in the world to miss the cut at The Open since Luke Donald in 2011 at Royal St. George’s. He appeared to keep it together with a tough par save from the bunker on No. 12, followed by two straight birdies. But he had another poor finish, closing bogey-double bogey for a 72 and is at 6-over 148 for 36 holes. Even as Tiger Woods was piecing together a level round, and late starters like Kisner and Jordan Spieth were still on the course, the cut figured to be about 3-over, plus or minus one shot. Zach Johnson and Dustin Johnson, one of golf’s most powerful players, share nothing in common but a surname. That hasn’t kept the casual fan from occasionally calling Zach Johnson by the wrong name. “I certainly am not the No. 1 player in the world that ends in ‘Johnson,” he said. “I’ve been called Dustin many times. I doubt he’s been called Zach that many times. Zach Johnson has more than held his own. In the power era of golf, he is more of a pistol than a cannon. And yet he has still won 12 times on the PGA TOUR, along with majors at the Masters and The Open. Fleetwood and McIlroy were playing a few groups ahead of Johnson, and it was a race to see who would wind up on top for much of the late morning until Johnson made his birdie putt on the final hole. Fleetwood shot 63 at Carnoustie last year in the Dunhill Links, but that was a European Tour event. In more difficult conditions, his 65 felt just as good, especially the birdie on the 18th that put him atop the leaderboard until Johnson finished. McIlroy, meanwhile, was within one shot until a long three-putt from just off the 12th green. He gave another shot back on the 15th when he pulled his second shot toward the gallery, though he made enough birdies to stay within range. “Under those conditions, I would have taken that score today going out,” McIlroy said. “It wasn’t that bad, but it was just damp enough and cold enough that the game plan that I was trying to adapt to be aggressive and hit driver a lot, I just couldn’t do it. … So a lot more irons off tees and a lot more conservative, but ended up being the same score.” Dustin Johnson wasn’t alone in his struggle this week. The No. 2 player in the world, Justin Thomas, also was headed toward a weekend off. Thomas was 2 under for the tournament when it took him two shots to get out of a pot bunker in the sixth fairway and three putts from long range on the green, leading to double bogey. He then made double bogey on the next two holes and wound up with a 77 to finish at 4 over.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Notes and observations from Friday’s second round of the Wyndham Championship, where Henrik Stenson shot 66 to take the lead at 12 under. Kevin Na shot 63 and a resurgent Hunter Mahan carded his second straight 65 to go into the weekend two shots back MAHAN BACK FROM THE ABYSS Hunter Mahan was the only player not to miss a FedExCup playoff event from its 2007 inception until he failed to make the 2015 TOUR Championship. He reached a career high of fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking after winning The Barclays in 2014. He played in four Presidents Cups, two Ryder Cups, and racked up roughly $30 million in career earnings. No one would have looked twice if that Mahan had shot 65 at steamy Sedgefield, getting him to 10 under and just two off the lead at the Wyndham. But today, at 35 and the father of three kids age 4 and younger, Mahan is 197th in the FedExCup and 809th in the OWGR. His best result so far this season: a T17 at the Travelers Championship, where he got his first win in 2007. If his name on the leaderboard surprises you, well, yes—it should. “I’ve been on a little bit of a journey in the last year trying to figure out what kind of—what kind of golfer I am, what kind of swings I need to make,â€� Mahan said after making six birdies and one bogey. “It kind of starts from scratch. It feels a little better. I’m trying to get back to what I did when I was successful and my kind of fingerprints and what I do well and—it’s difficult.â€� What happened to Mahan? The short answer is: parenthood. He held a two-shot at the 2013 RBC Canadian Open, but withdrew to be home for the birth of his first child with wife Kandi. It’s too easy to call that the line of demarcation in his career, since he won The Barclays the season after that, but Hunter and Kandi had their second and third kids in quick succession. “I think it overwhelmed me,â€� he told the AP last year. “And I lost track of my swing a little bit.â€� Mahan took a new caddie. He changed coaches, hiring Dallas-based Chris O’Connell, and the two went on a deep dive in search of the stuff that made Mahan the winner of two World Golf Championships and six total PGA TOUR titles. The results at Sedgefield suggest they’re on the right track. Mahan especially liked the way he responded to bogeying the sixth hole Friday. Over the past few years, he said, he might have faltered. This time, the former Oklahoma State star flushed a 6-iron onto the green at the par-3 seventh hole, leading to an easy par. At the par-4 eighth, he split the fairway and stuck a wedge inside 16 feet, then made the birdie putt. Can he keep building on his success? Mahan admits he doesn’t know. Some fixes have helped him one day only to hurt him the next. “Sometimes the cure becomes the cancer,â€� he said. Stenson, who has played his way out of the golfing wilderness more than once, said one of the hardest things for a player in Mahan’s shoes is to keep taking the long view. “The tendency is to try to turn things around too quickly,â€� Stenson said. “When I’ve been down, the key for me has been committing to the long-term process. You’ve got to give yourself time, and once you get into that mindset you get a different calmness and you can kind of climb your way up. It’s good to see Hunter playing well again. Mahan says his life is “pretty good,â€� and adds that he has learned what he can and can’t control with three young children. He watches the big events like last week’s PGA Championship go on without him, and while that’s disappointing, he tells himself that he’s doing the right things. Like any parent, he tries to stay patient. He tries to appreciate the small victories even if they don’t necessarily translate on the scorecard. Peers like Sean O’Hair, with whom Mahan played junior golf and who himself is a parent of four, tell him to keep his head up, that it’ll turn around. “I feel excited to play,â€� Mahan said. “Excited to learn about what I can do to get better. I’m not tired of golf, not sick of playing tournaments. I’ve got keep learning about myself and what I do well and what ‘feels’ work for me.â€�

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Adam Svensson captured his first PGA TOUR win at The RSM Classic. Check out his equipment setup below. RELATED: Final leaderboard from RSM Driver: Callaway Rogue ST Triple Diamond LS (9 degrees) Shaft: LA Golf prototype 3-wood: Callaway Rogue ST LS Shaft: Aldila Rogue Silver 110 M.S.I. 70 X Hybrid: Callaway Apex (18 degrees) Shaft: Project X HZRDUS Smoke Black 100 6.5 Irons: Callaway X Forged CB (4), Callaway Apex MB (5-9) Shafts: Project X HZRDUS (4), Project X 6.5 (5-9) Wedges: Callaway Jaws MD5 (46, 52, 56, 60) Shafts: Project X 6.5 Putter: Odyssey Toulon Design Palm Beach Ball: Callaway Chrome Soft X Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord

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