McIlroy, who played with Mickelson, messed up the final hole to miss the cut for the first time in eight starts at the PGA Championship.
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– Phil Mickelson after opening with a 7 on the par-4 1st hole that included one shot into the street outside Baltusrol.
The 37-year-old Walker birdied two holes on the front nine and four others on the back nine and bogeyed just one hole – the par-four sixth.
Looming large two strokes behind are defending champion Day and 23-year-old Emiliano Grillo of Argentina, with Stenson three back at rain-softened Baltusrol.
Another shot back were 2010 PGA victor Martin Kaymer (69), and Americans Patrick Reed (65) and Brooks Koepka (67). The first-round leader, Walker played the closing par-5s unconventionally.
After getting off to a promising start on Thursday with a 68, Streb blistered a Baltusrol course that had been softened by more than an inch of rain overnight and Friday morning.
The location sheet for the second round, which is provided to players to let them know where the pins will be that day, said the hole on No. 10 was on the left side of the green.
And Jimmy Walker is bidding to go wire-to-wire for his first major win.
The cut line was 2-over for the top 70 players. His next shot nearly landed in the backyard of a home adjoining the golf course.
Now in an unfamiliar position at the top of a major championship, Walker was asked about his approach ahead of the remaining two rounds, and he said: “I’ve never done it before, but I would imagine just more of the same”. “So that was really the only putt I made of length or really – I didn’t really have any good breaks, but I really didn’t have any bad breaks”.
Walker’s biggest challenge will be to hold off Day and Stenson.
American Colt Knost was furious with tournament officials after his bid for a first major title was hampered in freaky circumstances in the US PGA Championship. “I’ve got a cold”.
With the searing heat on Thursday forcing tournament officials to water the greens during play, McIlroy said he would wait until temperatures cooled before returning to the course to work on his putting.
Kaymer’s poor start continued with another bogey on the third to drop back to two under alongside world number three Jordan Spieth, who was moving in the opposite direction thanks to birdies on the 10th and 11th.
“PGA trying its hardest to trump the USGA”, Knost wrote on Twitter, a possible reference to the USGA’s much-criticised handling of Dustin Johnson’s one-shot penalty in the final round of the US Open.
The second-ranked Johnson had made 25 consecutive cuts in PGA Tour events, which was the longest active streak on the tour.
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“I hit the ball closer to the hole than yesterday which allowed a higher make percentage from there which is what I needed to get my putter somewhat going”. First I have to be in the situation and that’s what I was on these first two days. “Just try not to get too hung up in what’s going on, and try to stick to the golf and see if I can have a little fun while I’m at it”.
