Spieth Still Leads Travelers Championship at Midway Point

CROMWELL, CT — For the second straight day, one of the top golfers in the world stands alone atop the leaderboard at the Travelers Championship, with a broad mix of veteran stars and relative unknowns in hot pursuit.

After opening with a 7-under par 63 Thursday, Jordan Spieth could manage just a 1-under 69 Friday, leaving him at 8-under 132 and a one-stroke advantage over Patrick Reed and Troy Merritt.

Starting on the back nine, Spieth, ranked sixth in the world, made a seven foot putt for birdie at 12, but promptly gave two strokes back with a double-bogey at the par-5 13th after hitting his tee shot out of bounds.

He recovered to birdie 15, then made the turn and birdied 1 and 3 before failing to save par from a bunker at the par-3 fifth.

"It was just kind of an off day, and I'm glad I was able to still shoot 1-under with an off round, and we'll just go back and recognize that we probably need to be close to doubling this score for the rest of the tournament in order to win," Spieth said following his round.

Fifteen players are within three shots of Spieth, including past major champions Padraig Harrington (-5) and Jim Furyk (-5), who set a PGA TOUR record with a final-round 58 here last year. Among a group of 10 players another stroke back at 4-under are Brian Harman, who tied for second in last week's U.S. Open, and Anirban Lahiri of India, who posted the day's best round with a 7-under par 63.

Rory McIlroy, the world's third-ranked player making his first appearance in Cromwell, barely made the cut of even-par 140, bogeying four of his last seven holes to limp in with a 73. He teed off in the afternoon, when wind gusts and rain began to affect the players.

"Today with the way the conditions were, I think it was tricky in the wind, and in those conditions your weaknesses or parts of your game you need to work on are going to show up and sort of caught me up a few times today," McIlroy said.

Among the notables who will not be around for the weekend are world number 4 Jason Day (+2), two-time Masters champion and two-time Travelers winner Bubba Watson (+2), World Golf Hall of Famer Vijay Singh (+2), 2013 Travelers champion Ken Duke (+3), and former major titleholders Lucas Glover (+3), Chad Campbell (+3) and Zach Johnson (+4). Farmington High School graduate Zach Zaback (+6) also missed the cut.

Due to inclement weather expected for Saturday morning, starting times will be delayed, with players teeing off in threesomes off the first and 10th tees beginning at 10:45 a.m. Spieth, Reed and Merritt will comprise the final group, starting on the first hole at 1:05 p.m. Click here for complete starting times.

Gates and Will Call will open at 9 a.m. Aetna Greenside Club will open at 9 a.m. All other hospitality will open at the normally scheduled time of 10 a.m.

Check TravelersChampionship.com for further updates.

Photo credit: Tim Jensen