Photo credit: @nbcsandiego

By Jeremy Harness

PEBBLE BEACH – The rainy conditions were all but guaranteed for Friday’s second round, but the morning was relatively dry, and there was even a patch of blue sky to be seen over the grounds of Pebble Beach Golf Links.

But as expected, that all changed as the afternoon rolled in, and it only got worse in the ensuing hours.

The rain began to fall at about 12:30pm PST, and about half of the players were able to finish their rounds by then. One of them was Phil Mickelson, who not only survived Spyglass Hill but also picked up ground, surging to the top of the leaderboard.

His driving accuracy came back down to earth on Friday, and he didn’t hit as many greens as he did in the opening round, but he putted better than was the case at Monterey Peninsula on Thursday and was also able to withstand a three-hole bogey stretch at holes seven through nine. He finished with a four-under round of 68, as he found himself in a five-way tie for the lead at 10-under overall.

“I hate finishing the round off like that and making three bogeys after having a pretty good round going in,” Mickelson said. “It was just a little more difficult conditions. I’m also lucky to get done and get the round over with (before the rain started).” He was one shot behind when he finished his round but vaulted into a tie for the lead when Scott Langley, who had lead for most of the day, bogeyed the 17th hole and then made par at the 18th.

The rain intensified to the point where the actual holes were completely filled with water, and with some players still on the course with more than one hole to play, including Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Scott Piercy, a decision had to be made.

So the rules officials suspended play at 2:11pm PST. At this point, the players were given the choice of finishing the holes that they are currently on or simply marking their ball and returning the next morning to finish. Cameron Champ and Brice Garnett were on the 18th green, and they decided to finish out, resulting in a cool visual of Garnett’s closing putt splashing into the hole.

In all, there are 44 players yet to finish their second round, and they will go out starting at 7:10am PST Saturday morning. Immediately following the completion of their second rounds, those players will commence third-round action at their scheduled course that day.

“It just started kind of spitting rain on the 14th hole,” Langley said. “I told my partner, Dan Rose, ‘You know, man, we’re pretty lucky it hasn’t done anything yet, so it might as well just come,’ and it did, and in full force.

“I just tried to grind down the stretch and make pars,” he added. “Spyglass always seems to be the course that, I’ll call it the toughest out of the three, so to shoot three-under in these conditions in the end, I feel pretty good about it.” Another guy determined to finish out was Paul Casey, who shot a seven-under round of 64 at Monterey Peninsula and had some obvious momentum going that he did not to be extinguished.

“We were on the last hole, and I heard that horn go (signaling play suspension),” Casey said. “And then there was a second one and then a third one. I had to think for a minute, because (if) you get one long blast, you’re done (for the day). But the three means (that) you can finish the hole, and I’m like, ‘We can finish the hole?’ “I’ve never been so happy. I went from upset to happy in an instant, so it was all good.”

One who was not able to get it all in was Jordan Spieth, who appeared to catch a big break via some friendly assistance on Friday. He had an approach shot go wayward to the right at Spyglass Hill’s par-3 seventh hole, when a fan batted the ball in mid-air and deflected it onto the green.

Spieth went on to make par, and that turned out to be his final hole of the day – he started his round at the 10th – as he had a five-under, bogey-free round going before play was called. He is currently tied for the lead at 10-under.

There is more rain in tomorrow’s forecast, with a 40 percent chance of precipitation throughout the morning, before the heavy stuff arrives in the afternoon, as was the case Friday.

“There’s a chance we may miss some of it,” Mickelson said. “You just don’t know how it’s going to play or what the weather’s going to be, and you end up trying to shoot as low a round as you can because everybody else is facing the same conditions.”