The birdie, however, sent Spieth on his way.
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Of the morning wave of groupings, Johnson was trailed by two shots by Matt Kuchar, Jason Day, J.B. Holmes, Harris English, Danny Lee, Matt Jones and Russell Henley, all of whom shot 4-under-par 68.
In the calm of yesterday morning under grey skies Johnson fashioned a gorgeous 66, including an eagle at the 16th, to lead by one from David Lingmerth. It was the fifth time in 13 rounds at the majors this year that Johnson had at least a share of the lead.
It just never seems to stop. “We’ll just have to see what happens”.
It was a big start for McIlroy, and a shaky one for Spieth. They were the main event in the first round of the final major.
“Yeah, there was trouble lurking there for a second, and then right around the 15th, the horn blew and I was kind of glad that we’re in”, said Day, who was 5 under through 14 holes before the weather erupted.
Back in competition this week for the first time since he tied for ninth in the US Open at Chambers Bay in June, McIlroy will next set his sights on the four lucrative FedExCup events that conclude the PGA Tour season. Thursday’s round was a slog at the start, but both found their form on the back nine and salvaged a round with less than their best stuff in the toughest conditions.
It certainly was for Johnson. He had the 36-hole lead at St. Andrews until he disappeared on the weekend.
As second-round play at the 97th PGA Championship at Whistling Straits began on Friday, several big names found themselves needing a good round to get away from danger of being cut.
But McIlroy played the remaining holes in even par, unable to keep pace as Spieth picked up three birdies on his inward run.
“Today was pretty easy, I would have to say”, Johnson said. The ball was going where I was looking. I wasn’t hitting the shots that I wanted to hit. He turned what could have been a double bogey into par when he splashed out to seven feet to save par.
Seattle Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma’s feat of becoming the second Japanese-born pitcher after Hideo Nomo to throw a no-hitter in the U.S. major leagues was splashed on the home pages of sports newspapers and other media websites in his home country, greeting people as they were waking up Thursday.
That shot skidded 3 feet past the cup for a tap-in par.
“This is my first week back after the injury”, said McIlroy. But it was fine.
“But, for me, I just somehow got through it, which is fantastic, so I have a putt on 15 to get to 10″. I think anything under par this afternoon was a decent score.
That shot made for good TV.
“I mean, with all the lightning that is in the area, we only have like an hour or so of daylight left, so I mean obviously it’s a good idea to come back tomorrow”.
“I’m keeping an eye on things, and I haven’t done a ton of research”, Horschel said.
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Former world number one Tiger Woods, however, wasn’t making any headway. He missed the cut on Saturday at the wind-delayed British Open.
