Around sports: Kokrak leads at Riviera; Spieth misses cut

Two were victories, including the U.S. Open.

On the other hand, even though his Friday performance was an improvement, Jordan Spieth didn’t do almost enough to stick around for the weekend.

It’s not the time, however, to get overly concerned about Spieth. He made 8 birdies in his second round, so rest and more practice should do him well. He’s still getting back into the swing of things on a course he’s never played, so this is a positive 36-hole start.

Calling Kokrak an off-the-radar leader would be an understatement. He almost holed the second shot, only for it to spin back some 20 feet and lead to a two-putt par. Kokrak sits at 10-under-par through two rounds. However, his round became a lot more turbulent after that as he made three bogeys during the next five holes before concluding his round with birdies at the seventh and ninth.

It shows what a bit of rain can do to the playing conditions. Listen, look what Jordan has done the last few years.

“Sort of going, ‘You go ahead”. He stands two shots behind Watson, as does Adam Scott. Both have played well at this event. He’s finished as the runner-up here the last two years and lost to James Hahn in a playoff last year. He followed with three birdies and an eagle at the par-5 first, only to make triple bogey on No. 2 when his tee shot hit a cart path and was next to the out-of-bounds fence.

McIlroy also had a big finish to his 67.

Their a slew of big names sitting at 6-under-par.

American Kokrak gave himself a fine chance of earning a maiden PGA Tour title after an exemplary 64, which saw him fire eight birdies and just one bogey. Round 1 he was able to make his fair share of putts on these tricky surfaces. It was more of a crash landing, as the Colombian took 11 more strokes in scoring 74 to drop from the top to a tie for 15th with a five-under total. Phoenix Open victor Hideki Matsuyama was 9 under after a 68. The Kansas native was having a solid round through 14 holes but turned on the jets with three birdies over the last four holes to vault into position to win his first PGA Tour event since 2008. “I don’t feel like I did that much wrong with them”. It’s just very odd to see some of the ball flights. He showed he won’t be intimidated when the pressure is on. We rebounded in a ideal form previous year on just about every missed the cut.

Then again, McIlroy, who decided to make his first start here this year because of the high esteem in which the course is held among his peers, expected nothing less.

“I think that’s the beauty of golf, you know you can play, it doesn’t matter what your age is really as long as you can still hit the golf ball and get it in the hole”, Matthew said. The closest he has come to winning in four-plus years on the tour is a tie for second in the 2012 Frys.com Open. “You have a four-week stretch, you’re going to take it a little easier”. Projecting the winning score to be 12-under-par.