The Ryder Cup 2018: Tournament news, schedule, coverage and analysis

RIO GRANDE, Puerto Rico — Brandon Wu birdied the final two holes for a 5-under 67 and the second-round lead Friday in the PGA TOUR’s Puerto Rico Open. Wu played the back nine in 4 under at windy Grand Reserve. He birdied the par-4 12th, par-5 15th, par-4 17th and par-5 18th to reach 11-under 133. “It was kind of a grind,” Wu said. “I missed a short putt kind of early on in the round, made a bogey I think on my fourth hole. I kind of just had to keep my head down and play well on the back.” The 24-year-old former Stanford player got into the field through the Korn Ferry Tour points list. He won the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in August, and tied for 14th last week in Florida in the first Korn Ferry event since early October. “I think my game is in a good place,” Wu said. “It was good to see kind of the things I worked on during the offseason paying off. I did well last week, so that definitely gave me some confidence coming into this week.” Greg Chalmers was a stroke back after a 68. The 47-year-old Australian also birdied his final two holes, the par-3 eighth and par-4 ninth. He had a hole-in-one on No. 8 in the opening round. “The wind was really blowing,” Chalmers said. “I didn’t have the greatest control, and my short game really held me in good stead. I made some nice saves from sort of 6, 8 feet for par. It’s a little tricky to putt when the wind is blowing like this. And then I hung in there and started to see some better swings and better shots going into the back nine.” Home star Rafael Campos and South Africa’s Branden Grace were 9 under. Campos rebounded from a bogey on 17 with a birdie on 18 for a 69. “I think I was just getting a little ahead of myself and I was missing a little bit to the right,” Campos said. “But I was missing in the correct spots. I really was. Which I’m happy with that today. I really never gave myself that many looks to score better, but I managed to deal with the situations as good as I could.” Grace shot 68. Jhonattan Vegas (68) and Cameron Percy (69) were 8 under. First-round leader Tommy Gainey followed his opening 65 with a 76 to enter the weekend at 3 under. Ian Poulter also was 3 under after a 70. The tournament is being played opposite the World Golf Championship event in Florida. The winner will get into the PGA Championship in May.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — You can never relax at TPC Sawgrass. The ultimate risk-reward course can give up low numbers, but if you let your guard down, it can bite you on the backside very quickly. Jason Day won THE PLAYERS Championship in 2016. He just won last week at the Wells Fargo Championship. But the Australian knows he cannot afford to rest on his laurels this week. He holds a piece of the course record with his opening round 9-under 63 from 2016. But he also has shot 80 and 81 on occasions during his seven starts at THE PLAYERS. “You can get on the wrong side of it easily and rack up a really big number,â€� Day said. “If you are playing well and driving it well you can give yourself a lot of opportunities but if you are not mentally sharp and spray it … the greens are so firm, there are a lot of shaved areas and the grain makes chipping very difficult, so it can certainly go south.â€� Like it did for Jon Rahm when he made his TPC Sawgrass debut last year. The Spanish star opened with a 68 and followed with a solid 72 to enter the weekend inside the top 10. Come Saturday, he shot 82 to miss the secondary cut. “It’s a test, and that’s something that I had to learn last year when on Saturday, I went a little more aggressive than maybe I should have and ended up making more bogeys than I really wanted to,â€� Rahm said. “(I learned) a lot of patience, stick to the strategy, and sometimes just to know that having a longer iron out of the fairway might be better than having a wedge out of the rough.â€� Patience does appear to be key. So much so that Jordan Spieth has finally convinced himself he needs more of it. He finished T4 in his PLAYERS debut in 2014, and was bogey-free for his first 58 holes that week, setting a standard in his mind he now sees as unreasonable with the benefit of hindsight … along with the fact that he’s missed the cut in his ensuing three starts. “This is not a place to go out and try and force birdies, and I think that’s kind of where I’ve gone the last few years that’s got me in trouble,â€� Spieth admitted. “The first year I played here, I almost won it, and so I just kind of assumed that it would come easy to me.â€� This year Spieth declared he will stick to a game plan just to get himself to the weekend and have a chance. Reigning FedExCup champion and current points leader Justin Thomas has shot 65 twice at TPC Sawgrass. He also has shot 75 twice and bombed out last year with a Saturday 79. Thomas says the beauty of the course and the tournament is that the best player of the week wins. You might think that is true every week – but often big-name guys can win without their best stuff. TPC Sawgrass, however, doesn’t allow this. The windows players must find with their shots are small. “It’s a shot-maker’s course,â€� Thomas said. “I think you look at the list of winners here, and it’s all over the place. You have some guys, some of the best players in the world, you have some guys that maybe haven’t had the same amount of success as the top players, but it truly is whoever is playing the best. “You have to be in total control of your ball. You have to be working it one way off the tee, working it another way into the green, have your distances down to where you’re putting from the right spots. You can’t short-side yourself. You have to be good around the greens and around the par-5s in two. It really is a total package golf course.â€� Someone is going to go low this week. Someone is going to do the opposite. Finding out who is the fun part.

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