(Update 3: McIlroy rolled in a 16-foot putt on his final hole to cap a 67 and take a two-shot lead as the morning group wraps up. While McIlroy’s round wasn’t spectacular, it should do no worse than keep him at or near the top of the leaderboard by day’s end, which was his stated goal. Ryan Palmer is two shots back at 7-under after a 1-under 70. Among other early finishers, Steve Stricker and Canadian Graham DeLaet are both at 5-under after going 3-under today.)
(Update 2: McIlroy reached the green in two on the 542-yard, par-5 18th hole, then dropped a 31-foot putt for eagle to move two shots clear of the field at 8-under with nine holes to play. Steve Stricker is a surprise contender after going 4-under for his first 10 holes. He’s one of four players at 6-under, the only one of whom on the course is Ryan Palmer, who is even for the day through 13 holes.)
(Update 1: McIlroy sank a 16-foot putt on his sixth hole, No. 15, to move to 6-under for the tournament, one shot behind Palmer. Heavy rain began falling a short time ago but play has continued and the radar indicates it shouldn’t last long.)
More than two hours after play resumed at the 2014 PGA Championship following a 50-minute rain delay, Rory McIlroy has rebounded from an early mis-step and is back to stalking the lead through four holes of his second round.
Ryan Palmer, the only one of the three first-round co-leaders with a morning tee time, took the solo lead briefly with a birdie at No. 7, gave it back with a bogey at No. 8 and then grabbed it again with a birdie at No. 9.
Heavy rains that started around dawn forced play to be suspended at 7:45 a.m., just after the first players went off, but the rains have been light and intermittent since, and while the forecast calls for more showers and perhaps a thundershower or two later, it also shows the weather pattern improving later in the day.
A PGA official said if there are no more delays, the expectation is the second round can be completed today. Sunset doesn’t arrive until 8:44, as Louisville is in the western portion of the Eastern time zone.
Tiger Woods, who started the day tied for 107th place after an opening 74, has a lot of work to do to make the cut, which currently is at even par. Woods, in the same threesome with Phil Mickelson and Padraig Harrington, is scheduled to tee off at 2:35.
McIlroy began his run of four straight birdies on Thursday at No. 12, but today had a bogey there as he missed the fairway and put his second shot in a bunker, then missed a 9-foot par putt. But McIlroy got the shot back when he sank a 12-foot birdie putt at No. 13. The birdie put McIlroy back at 5-under, two shots back of Chappell.
Swedish star Henrik Stenson, who started the day tied with McIlroy at 5-under, has two birdies and a bogey in his first five holes and is at 6-under, one off the lead.
The other two co-leaders from Thursday, Lee Westwood and Kevin Chappell, have afternoon tee times, with Westwood scheduled to tee off at 2:15 p.m. and Chappell at 2:20.
As of now, the latest tee times today is 3:35 p.m. The average time per round yesterday was about five hours, but the wet conditions could result in play being a bit slower today.
