Tiger Woods struggles, Matthew Wolff rebounds at Sherwood

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The waiter was busy taking their orders. When he got to Brady, Ben Crane’s 9-year-old son, the youngster simply held up a plastic Ziploc bag. Inside were two of the prettiest rainbow trout you’d ever want to see. “I want you to cook these for me,â€� Brady said. Those fish were the first he’d ever caught fly fishing. And seeing how excited his son was as he reeled those trout in may have been the highlight of the trip for Brady’s dad. “I was so proud of him,â€� Crane recalls, smiling broadly. And the fish tasted pretty darn good, too. That three-day fishing trip in Arkansas earlier this year was their first “boys onlyâ€� excursion. Joining Crane and Brady were Crane’s brother Tim and his son Elijah and their father Doug. The two left the day after Crane accepted the Charlie Bartlett Award given by the Golf Writers Association of America at its annual dinner in Augusta, Georgia. The award recognizes a player for his or her contributions to the betterment of society, and Brady – to his credit —  gamely sat through myriad of speeches that night. The two flew to Memphis the next day and then drove three-and-a-half hours to the White River where they settled into the cabin that would be their home for the next three days. The return trip was even longer, five hours in a car, but no one was complaining. The father-son bonding time was precious to the five-time PGA TOUR winner. “It was a long drive, which was actually fun,â€� Crane recalls. “He’s nine so now he can be sitting up front with me and I’m just looking over at him and just enjoying that, having that time together and playing some Michael Jackson songs, playing some songs that mean something to my childhood and stuff.â€� Crane says he and his wife Heather often talk about how quickly  their three children – Brady and his sisters, Cassidy and Saylor, who are 11 and 6, respectively – are growing up. This trip was an opportunity to put the brakes on, if only for a few days. “Heather and I always think about this season of life,â€� Crane says. “What would we give in 10 years to have this day back with our kids where they’re impressionable, where they’re learning and they’re growing? “We just want to be intentional about parenting them and teaching them the joys and the pitfalls of life.â€� Some of the stories Crane told his son were funny. Goofy, even – after all, this is the man behind the hugely popular Golf Boys videos. But others were more impactful – like the time a couple of little girls put a young boy struggling for attention in his place. “I was kind of bragging about stuff, whatever, and these girls, I walked into the house and they said, ‘Man in the mirror, take a look at yourself and make a change,’â€� Crane said, reciting the lyrics of the popular Michael Jackson song. “And it like crushed me like a little eight, nine year old kid. “I told Brady, I’m like, when we brag about ourselves it does not go well. Like other people do not enjoy hearing it. … But now I look back on it. I’m like, okay, they were sending a message that was hurtful, but it was a good one.â€� And while Crane says “it’s amazing to see your kids light up when you share personal stories of your childhood,â€� it was hardly a one-way street. And the two had such a good time together that when offered a choice between sports camp and a trip to the John Deere Classic with his dad, Brady chose the golf tournament. One thing the group didn’t count on during that trip to Arkansas, though, was Mother Nature. Turns out the weather was unseasonably cold for April. “We literally went through our suitcases and we put on everything, every t-shirt, every whatever …  because it was probably 40 degrees on the river,â€� Crane recalls. “So it made the fishing really, really slow and so it wasn’t normal. “So you had to tell stories. You had to bundle up.â€� Once in a while, though, the rainbow trout couldn’t resist those flies cast into the cold, clear water. So there was no need for any fish stories when the trip was done. The Cranes caught the real thing – in more ways than one.

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ATLANTA — Dustin Johnson went the last three hours over 13 holes without hitting from the fairway and still manged to hang on to the lead Saturday after two rounds at the TOUR Championship. Johnson could at least see his entire golf ball from the first cut on the par-5 18th at East Lake, setting up a two-putt birdie for an even-par 70 and a one-shot lead lead over Sungjae Im. RELATED: Full leaderboard | McIlroy begins fatherhood with 64 in Round 1 | JT thrives in pursuer role The big picture going into the final two rounds is all about opportunity. As well as Johnson has been playing — two runner-up finishes and an 11-shot victory in his last three starts — there was a chance he could have started with that two-shot lead and created some big separation. Instead, nine players are separated by five shots heading for the Labor Day finish. Im, the budding star from South Korea whose game had gone lukewarm coming out of the three-month shutdown, birdied three of his last four holes for a 64 and will be in the final group with Johnson. Xander Schauffele, who won the TOUR Championship as a rookie in 2017, ran off three straight birdies late in his round for a 65 and was two shots behind. Another big move came from PGA champion Collin Morikawa, whose 66 put him in range. And it took some help from the leading players who stumbled on an East Lake course that punished mistakes. Johnson has rounds of 67-70, and along with starting at 10 under because of his No. 1 seed, was at 13-under par. He hit only two fairways — the first hole and the fifth, where both times he made par. He still managed a birdie on No. 8 when he chipped in from 40 feet and the final hole, one of the two par 5s at East Lake. Rory McIlroy, who managed only two birdies, lost ground at the end with a shot that laser cameras estimated at 85 feet, which didn’t account for how far it sunk to the bottom of the lake. He tried to reach the 18th green from the thick rough just through the fairway, and it topped out into the water. That led to bogey and a 71. Justin Thomas pulled within one shot until he couldn’t convert birdie chances and then drove so far left on the 18th that he had to pitch out sideways, leading to bogey and a 71. Jon Rahm again was keeping stride with Johnson until he found the water off the tee at the par-3 15th and made double bogey, followed by a wild drive that led to bogey on the 16th. He shot a 74, nine shots worse than his opening round. That left him four shots behind at 9 under, along with Morikawa and Tyrrell Hatton, who had a 66 and spoke for the field when he said hitting from the rough “is a complete lottery.” That’s what was so maddening for Thomas, who felt like he was hitting it well enough from tee to green. He ranks last in the 30-man field in putting, which would not surprise him. “I should have never shot over par today with how well I played,” he said. “I just made absolutely nothing.” That much was evident when his 6-foot par putt swirled in and out of the cup, and Thomas gave it a sarcastic thumbs-up. McIlroy said he tried to take on too much with his shot that he duffed into the water, but he didn’t appear too shaken. This was more about the leaderboard than perspective on life from being a new father. “It doesn’t look like I’m going to lose any ground today anyway, which is some sort of consolation,” he said. Rahm was frustrated as ever, mainly because he couldn’t capitalize when he was in the fairway and felt it was another round at East Lake that would cost him. Now, however, he’s still only four shots behind with 36 holes remaining and the FedExCup still very much up for grabs. “The closest I came from the fifth hole on to make a birdie was that bunker shot on 18,” he said of his third shot from behind the green. “That’s the best look I had all day. It’s just one of those days. But like you said, the mentality is right now we’ve played two days of the tournament. I’m four back going into the weekend. Anything can happen.”

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