The 30 players headed to the Tour Championship and finale of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Numbers were being circled on scorecards at every turn of the head during Friday’s second round of The Northern Trust, which only made the frustration level that much higher for a pair of heavyweights, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas. Neither could shift into drive at Liberty National Golf Club in the Playoffs opener. But at least DeChambeau, 1-under through 11 holes, had it in neutral. His playing competitor, Thomas couldn’t even do that. One day after opening with a sizzling 8-under 63, he was 3-over for his first eight holes. “I had no clubface control,” said Thomas, who missed the fairway with five of his first six drives, though give him credit, he was fair to fans on both sides of the course. “I started missing it left, missing it right.” Fortunately, Thomas had the luxury of a wonderful Thursday score to fuel his engines and offer comfort that things can change in a hurry with these lads. “I was patient. I still wasn’t forcing anything,” said Thomas. “I know I can make a lot of birdies, that it’s still early in the tournament.” Turning to play Liberty National’s front nine, fortunes changed in a hurry as DeChambeau played the last seven holes in 5-under to shoot 65, while Thomas played his last five in 5-under to get home in 69. Nowhere did the explosive finishes resonate more loudly than at the 612-yard, par-5 eighth hole when Thomas matched DeChambeau’s eagle in a sequence of shots that had them smiling and high-fiving one another. It was a more improbable eagle for DeChambeau, who drove it in rough right of the fairway and laid up to about 60 yards. The wedge was perfect, finding the bottom of the jar on the third hop. More conventional, but equally impressive was Thomas’ second shot from 286 yards that came to rest 12 feet from the hole. “I hit 5-wood. We didn’t think it had any chance of getting it up (onto the green). The play was just to try to hit it in that far right bunker,” said Thomas, who wasn’t about to chastise himself for being wrong. His 5-wood was enough club, and his eagle putt was pure, and the pleasantries were on. “We were just joking,” said Thomas, who had initiated a conversation up to the green with DeChambeau after the hole-out. Then came the matching eagle and even more smiles and more chatter. “After I made my putt, we looked at each other and said, ‘Good halve,’ ” laughed Thomas, who took note of the sprint in his playing competitor’s step. “He definitely had some fun the last two holes hitting driver.” Pushing to 10-under 132, Thomas was within two of Tony Finau’s clubhouse lead, while DeChambeau got to 6-under 132, which will be a half-dozen off the lead, but a vast improvement from where he had been a short while earlier. “I’ve always been pretty good at changing things on the fly, or at least making something work,” said Thomas. “Finally did on those last five or six holes.”

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HOUSTON – It wasn’t the coldest day in Houston Open golf history; after all, this tournament has been played as early as February and as late as the week before Thanksgiving. And it wasn’t the windiest day, although gusts did reach upwards of 30 mph. And it probably wasn’t the toughest day – but it was definitely tougher in Friday’s second round at the Golf Club of Houston than it was in the opening round. Almost two strokes tougher, in fact. Thanks to a strong cold front that arrived mid-morning – bringing rain and isolated thunderstorms that forced a 2-hour suspension – golfers found it difficult to not only break par, but stay warm in temperatures that dropped into the mid-50s. Related: Leaderboard | Soon to be a father, Malnati hopes to deliver a win | Win probabilities The stroke average on Friday was 73.438. It was 71.510 on Thursday at the par-72 course. Afternoon golfers, once they got on the course, felt the brunt of the conditions. Of the 11 golfers who managed to complete their rounds before darkness suspended play, just one – Scott Brown with a 69 – broke 70. Two others were at 71. The other eight did not break par. “It was tough out there,� said Sepp Straka after his afternoon 71 left him at 8 under through two rounds, two shots behind leader Peter Malnati. “It was cold, it was windy, completely different from yesterday morning. Yeah, it was a grind.� Mark Hubbard was one of the morning finishers, and he moved up the leaderboard with a 69. Still, he had to encounter the changing conditions mid-round. “It was weird,� he said. “I was sweating through my gray pants this morning at 7 a.m. and by about our 13th hole, I wished I had another jacket.� Malnati also went off early, and he made the biggest move with a 65 that left him at 10 under and with the solo lead. Talor Gooch, one of the 18-hole co-leaders, is a stroke back. “I went out just purely with the plan of I’m going to give my best effort all the time no matter what,� Malnati said. “… When the weather was good, trying my best on every shot resulted in 5 under through five and then when the weather turned after our long delay, that trying my best on every shot turned into 2 under through my last 13 – and that was still pretty darn good.� The 453-yard par-4 18th hole turned particularly nasty into the wind. It played to a stroke average of 4.891, making it the hardest hole on the course Friday. No player managed a birdie in the 110 players who played the hole. “They moved the tee box two up, so I don’t even think there was another tee box they could have moved it to,� Hubbard said, who noted that after his 238-yard tee shot found the rough near the fairway bunker, he was basically playing for bogey. His playing partners each made par using 3-woods with their approach shots. “I said ‘Good birdie’ to both of them,� Hubbard said. “At that point, I think that was my first bogey of the tournament – and in my mind, I was still bogey-free.� Of the 59 players still left on the course, just eight are at 2 under or better for the rounds. The good news, though, is that they should get improved scoring conditions once play resumes at 9 a.m. ET. The third round will then go off two tees in threesomes starting at approximately noon ET.

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WILMINGTON, N.C. — Once the rain finally stopped, the wind took over Friday in the Wells Fargo Championship. Billy Hurley III and Seamus Power of Ireland did their best to figure out the strong gusts and wound up atop the leaderboard at the end of a long day. The second round started three hours late because of a violent storm that dumped nearly 2 inches of rain on Eagle Point, and 65 players had to return Saturday morning to complete the round. Hurley hit a 4-iron from 174 yards that came up 15 yards short, and he managed to get up-and-down to cap off a strong finish for a 3-under 69. Power shot a 71 and joined Hurley at 5-under 139. John Peterson’s last hole was a birdie on the par-5 12th hole. He was at 5 under and had six holes to play Saturday morning. Francesco Molinari of Italy, who opened with a 66, also was at 5 under and had seven holes remaining. Dustin Johnson couldn’t get off the golf course fast enough. In his first tournament since a slip down the stairs knocked him out of the Masters Tournament, Johnson opened with a tough par save and a birdie to get within two shots of the lead until dropping shots on a pair of par 3s, getting out of position off the tee on the reachable par 5s and ending with a third bogey on No. 13. Johnson was 2 over for his round, five shots out of the lead. With the worst of the weather out of the way, one bizarre dynamic was in play depending on how the second round finishes Saturday morning. When play was halted by darkness, 80 players were at 1 over (either finished or on their back nine). That could mean only a six-shot separation between leading and making the cut on the number, meaning a wide-open weekend. The key was to get through Friday’s wild weather. The wind was so strong that it blew Phil Mickelson’s hat off his head as he was preparing to hit his tee shot. Mickelson went along nicely until missing the green to the right on No. 9, dumping a chip into the bunker and making double bogey on his last hole for a 72. He was at 1-under 143. “It was more difficult with the wind,” Hurley said. “Thankfully, with the rain it was softer. It we didn’t have this rain, and then we had this wind, it would have been pretty brutal. So we didn’t have to completely worry about the ball running away from you on the ground as much as it did yesterday.” Hurley was 1 over for his round when he ran off four birdies over his last seven holes, including a couple from tap-in range, yet it was the par on No. 9 that excited him as much as the birdies. The green is exposed as much as any at Eagle Point, and he holed a 10-foot par putt. Power played No. 9 in the middle of his round, hit a 6-iron and came up 40 yards short. His pitch barely reached the fringe, and he made bogey. Walking back up the hill to face the 186-yard, downhill 10th hole, he hit 5-iron and held his breath. “It’s unusual. It messes with your eyes because you’re uncomfortable hitting that show knowing that if the wind dies, you might watch a ball sail into the water around the greens,” Power said. “You’ve just got to pick a number and you’ve got to go with and just try to get through those.” Jon Rahm of Spain knows the feeling. Rahm made five birdies and had to settle for a 71, but he was at 4-under 140 along with Vaughn Taylor (69), Rafa Cabrera Bello (71) and Brian Harman (69). Rahm began his round on the par-3 10th with a shot that came up some 20 yards short of the pin. What really got his attention was the par-3 second hole, where he hit a beautiful tee shot that went 192 yards — except the hole was playing only 161 yards. “There were a couple moments where the difference between the wind being just straight right-to-left or being a little bit in, that wind could mean easily 20 yards because it was blowing so hard,” Rahm said. “What happened to me on No. 2, after a great stretch of holes, I carried it about 30 yards farther than what I wanted. I’m not the only one dealing with this. It probably happened to a couple other guys where they were 20 yards short or 20 yards long.” Was it more fun than a calm day? Rahm smiled. “It is fun because I played good,” he said. “But it does get a little frustrating sometimes.”

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