17 Canadians will be among approximately 375 athletes competing for 2017 playing status at the second stage of Web.com Tour Qualifying School, hosted at five different sites across the United States from Nov. 1–11.

Each qualifying site will host 72-hole stroke-play events with 78-player fields and no cuts. The number of players advancing from each site will be determined on a pro-rated basis (announced during play).

Nov. 1–4, Oak Valley Golf Course | Breaumont, Calif.

Seann Harlingten (Vancouver)
David Rose (Vancouver)
Robbie Greenwell (Georgetown, Ont.)
Aaron Cockerill (Teulon, Man.)
Ryan Williams (Vancouver)
Ryan Yip (Calgary)

Nov. 1–4, Magnolia Grove-Crossing | Mobile, Ala.

Derek Gillespie (Oshawa, Ont.)
Devin Carrey (Burnaby, B.C.)
Stephane Dubois (Brantford, Ont.)
Raoul Menard (Ange-Gardien, Que.)

Nov. 8–11, Southern Hills Plantation Club | Brooksville, Fla.

Matt Hill (Sarnia, Ont.)

Nov. 8–11, TPC Craig Ranch | McKinney, Tex.

Beon Lee (Montreal)
James Love (Calgary)
Riley Fleming (Calgary)
Taylor Pendrith (Richmond Hill, Ont.)

Nov. 8–11, Plantation Reserve Golf Course & Club | Plantation, Fla.

Ben Silverman (Thornhill, Ont.)
Lucas Kim (Toronto)

All players who advance to the third and final stage of qualifying will at least earn conditional status on the Web.com Tour in 2017.

Click here for event information.

JACKSON, Miss. – Cody Gribble and his caddie talked a ton during the final nine holes of his impressive run to a Sanderson Farms Championship victory. Very little was about golf.

They talked about Gribble’s Texas Longhorns and their big win in football over Baylor on Saturday. They talked about the Chicago Cubs and the World Series. They discussed their upcoming trip to Las Vegas.

Anything to keep Gribble’s mind off the incredible run he was making.

“I knew I was in a good spot and I knew I was playing well,” Gribble said. “It’s hard not to sit there and look at the scoreboard, look where you’re at and how you’re doing.”

The small talk worked. Gribble finished with a 7-under 65 – which included five birdies on a spectacular back nine – to turn a tight fight into a four-stroke victory and his PGA Tour title.

The 26-year-old rookie started the day a stroke behind playing partners Chris Kirk and Luke List.

Gribble had two birdies on the front nine to stay in contention, then ran off birdies on Nos. 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17. He finished at 20-under 268.

Gribble looked as if he might have trouble just making the cut at the Country Club of Jackson after an opening 73. He bounced back with a 63 in the second round to jump into contention – one shy of the course record – and followed it up with a 67 on Saturday.

On Sunday, Gribble started slowly, but picked up steam on an unseasonably hot day in Jackson where the temperature pushed 90 degrees. He made a short birdie putt on 11 and then hit a difficult downhill 18-foot putt for birdie on 13.

Then he was rolling, making three more birdies on 15, 16 and 17 to pull away.

Kirk and List each shot 70 to tie for second with England’s Greg Owen (68).

“Cody played unbelievable,” List said. “He definitely deserved to win. I was happy to scramble around and get a couple under out of it.”

Kirk won the tournament in 2011, back when it was called the Viking Classic and played at nearby Annandale Golf Club. He was in contention again at the Country Club of Jackson after shooting a 65 in the third round, but nobody was able to keep up with Gribble’s torrid pace on Sunday.

“It was definitely impressive watching Cody play that back nine,” Kirk said. “I wish that I could have given him a little better run. I was just a little bit off, I guess.”

Gribble played in college at Texas and is the second member of the school’s 2012 national championship team to win a PGA Tour event. The other is Jordan Spieth.

Gribble obviously has a way to go to match the accomplishments of Spieth, who is among the world’s best players, but the Sanderson Farms win is certainly a good start. He earned $756,000, 300 FedExCup points and exempt status on tour through the 2018-19 season.

The four-stroke win was the second largest in tournament history, trailing Frank Conner’s five-stroke win in 1988.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Shanshan Feng won the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia on Sunday to cap a string of top finishes that started with an Olympic bronze medal.

The 27-year-old Chinese star beat Suzann Pettersen by three strokes at TPC Kuala Lumpur, shooting a 4-under 67 after finishing off a third-round 64 in the morning.

Feng won the event for the second time to push her LPGA Tour victory total to five, ending a drought that stretched to her 2014 Kuala Lumpur win.

She has finished no worse than a tie for fourth in her last six events. After Rio, she tied for fourth at Evian in France, then opened the Asia Swing in China with a fourth-place tie at Reignwood, was second in Taiwan and tied for third in South Korea.

Tied with Anna Nordqvist after the Swede’s tap-in birdie on the par-4 13th, Feng regained the lead with a sweeping 18-foot birdie putt on the par-4 14th. She added a downhill 15-footer on the par-3 15th, and had a three-stroke lead moments later when Nordqvist three-putted the 14th.

Feng finished at 17-under 267.

Pettersen shot her second straight 66. Nordqvist had a 70, hitting into the water on the par-4 18th for a double bogey that dropped her into a tie for third with Amy Yang (69) at 12 under.

A stroke ahead of Nordqvist on Saturday when darkness stopped play, Feng returned to par the 18th and took a two-stroke lead into the final round when Nordqvist closed with a bogey.

The players remained in their third-round groups for the final round in the event that fell behind Saturday when lightning and rain forced a 4 1/2-hour delay. Feng was in the third-to-last threesome, three groups behind Pettersen and a group ahead of Nordqvist.

Top-ranked Lydia Ko shot a 71 – making a double bogey on 15 and a bogey on 18 – to tie for 12th at 8 under. Malaysia’s Sargunan Suntharaj caddied for her in her first tournament since firing Jason Hamilton.

Hamilton immediately teamed with Ha Na Jang, and she ended up tying Ko at 8 under. Jang shot a 72. She birdied four of the first six, bogeyed five of the next six, and parred the last six.

Michelle Wie finished the third round with a quadruple-bogey 8 for a 73, and shot a 71 in the fourth to tie for 27th at 4 under.

The tournament was played on TPC Kuala Lumpur’s East Course, a week after Justin Thomas successfully defended his title on the West Course in the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic.

SHANGHAI – Hideki Matsuyama waved to a cheering crowd from the top balcony of a corporate suite over the 18th green at Sheshan International, where moments earlier he finished up a thorough beating of a world-class field in the HSBC Champions.

He never felt higher. His game never felt better.

And the 24-year-old Japanese star can only hope that he’s just getting started.

Matsuyama never gave anyone a chance Sunday, closing with a 6-under 66 for a seven-shot victory that made him the first Asian to win a World Golf Championships event since the series began in 1999.

And it was only fitting that he won at the event billed as “Asia’s major.”

“He was brilliant,” said defending champion Russell Knox, who played in the last group and was along for the ride. “No weaknesses the last two days. He drove the ball well and far, and his iron play was very good. And he made it look very easy.”

The only trouble came when it no longer mattered. Matsuyama realized that one last birdie would give him 30 for the week, so he went for the green on the par-5 18th and his shot bounced out of a bush and tumbled into the water. No problem. He took his drop in the rough, hit wedge to 18 feet and made one last putt to extend a streak of playing the final 45 holes without a bogey.

“No special number,” he said of his goal to make 30 birdies. “I made 19 birdies the first few days, so then I was thinking, ‘Well, if I make 11 more, I can win.’ So that was kind of my goal was to get to 30 birdies.”

He really didn’t need any of them.

Matsuyama finished at 23-under 265, one short of the tournament record that Dustin Johnson set three years ago. He won by seven over British Open champion Henrik Stenson (65) and Daniel Berger (69).

One week after becoming the first Japanese player since Jumbo Ozaki in 1998 to reach the top 10 in the world, the victory moved Matsuyama up to No. 6.

There was one moment early in the round when it looked as though there would be a two-shot swing would have cut his deficit to two shots over Berger. Matsuyama made his 15-foot par putt on the par-3 fourth hole, hit his approach to 4 feet on the next hole for birdie and was on his way. Three straight birdies on the back nine, including a 9-iron out of the rough on the tough 15th that settled 3 feet away, turned this into a rout.

“I’ve never won by that many even in Japan,” Matsuyama said.

It was the largest margin of victory in the HSBC Champions, and the largest in a WGC event since Tiger Woods won by seven in the 2013 Bridgestone Invitational.

He won for the 10th time in his career, and his third PGA Tour-sanctioned victory tied him with Shigeki Maruyama for most by a Japanese player. Matsuyama won the Memorial in 2014, and he won the Phoenix Open in February in a playoff over Rickie Fowler.

“Shigeki Maruyama is a good friend of mine, and he always said that I was going to pass his records,” Matsuyama said. “But at least I’ve tied him now. That was a great honour, because I have great respect for him.”

The next stop is a major. Y.E. Yang at the 2009 PGA Championship is the only Asian to win a men’s major.

“Winning today I feel has got me closer to being able to compete a lot better in the major tournaments, and so my next goal is, of course, to win a major,” he said. “And I’m going to do all that I can to prepare well for that.”

In the last three weeks since he finished his best PGA Tour season with fifth place at the Tour Championship, Matsuyama won the Japan Open, was runner-up in Malaysia to Justin Thomas in the CIMB Classic, and then won his biggest tournament yet.

“Hideki played just unbelievable and it was a pleasure to watch. You can learn a lot from watching Hideki play,” Berger said. “He’s struck it well. He’s putted well. He’s chipped well. He’s done everything well, and that’s why he’s won by so many.”

Knox, playing in the final group for the second straight week, closed with a 74 and tied for ninth.

Rory McIlroy closed with a 66 to share fourth with Bill Haas (69). McIlroy said he would skip the Turkish Airlines Open next week, presumably because of security concerns over recent weeks, which makes him a long shot for the Race to Dubai on the European Tour.

Masters champion Danny Willett remains in front. Stenson’s 20-foot birdie putt on the last hole gave him a share of second, which at least helped him close the gap. He also moved up one spot to No. 4, knocking Jordan Spieth down one notch.

JACKSON, Miss. – After Kevin Streelman opened the Sanderson Farms Championship with a 9-under 63 on Thursday, he and several other players said it would take 20 under or better to win.

Chris Kirk isn’t into predictions, but he does know what he’ll need to do Sunday for his fifth PGA Tour title and second in the event.

“I’ve tried to predict scores before, and I’ve never done a very good job of it, so I’ve kind of quit,” said Kirk, the highest-ranked player in the field. “I’m just going to go out and stay very aggressive, and I’ll try to make as many birdies as I can, that’s for sure.”

Kirk had eight birdies in a 7-under 65 to share the third-round lead with Luke List.

List also shot 65 to match Kirk at 14 under at the Country Club of Jackson.

Graham DeLaet (68) of Weyburn, Sask., Cody Gribble (67), and 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover (68) were a stroke back.

Second-round leader Grayson Murray had a 72 to drop two shots behind. He missed several short putts and had a double bogey on the shortest par-4 on the course.

Kirk’s first PGA Tour title came in the event in 2011, when it was known as the Viking Classic and was played at Annandale Golf Club in nearby Madison. He has won three times since, including twice in 2014, when he finished second in the FedEx Cup standings.

Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., was tied for 10th after a 69.

List, chasing his first PGA Tour victory, had seven birdies in a bogey-free round.

List opened the week with a 71 that included four bogeys. He got hot Friday, making five straight birdies at one point, and hasn’t made a bogey over his last 27 holes.

While Kirk has been in this position before, it’s all new for List, who has had just two top-10 finishes in three years on the tour and has never been higher than ninth place after 54 holes.

On Sunday, he’ll be in the final group with Kirk and Gribble.

“The more patient and chill I can be out there the better,” List said. “Of course, I’ll be nervous and excited to compete for relatively the first time in major contention, so I’ll just be trying to do the same thing, get the ball in the fairway and go from there.”

Kirk played Wednesday’s pro-am with a fever. He said he has felt a little better each day since.

His game has responded accordingly, and with three wins in the last three years he’s by far the most accomplished player in the final pairing.

“That helps a little bit, I guess, but it doesn’t make it any easier,” he said. “Winning out here is extremely difficult. You have to play incredibly well, and you have to get some good breaks long the way. I’m happy to have a chance.”

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Shanshan Feng birdied four of her final six holes after a long lightning delay Saturday to top the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia leaderboard when darkness suspended play.

The 27-year-old Chinese player had a one-stroke lead over fellow major champion Anna Nordqvist of Sweden. Feng was 7 under for the day and 13 under overall on the 18th tee when play was stopped at TPC Kuala Lumpur. Nordqvist was on the par-5 16th.

“The 18th hole is a tough hole, but it’s good that the pin location is not the toughest today,” Feng said. “I think maybe I’ll have a full warmup in the morning. Hopefully, then, after I finish the 18th hole, I can go directly to No. 1 and start my fourth round.”

Play was delayed for 4 hours, 39 minutes by the lightning and periods of heavy rain, leaving only 90 minutes of light left when the action resumed.

“I just kept eating,” Feng said. “They kept updating like every 30 minutes, and like after every update, I’m like, ‘Maybe I’m going out so I should eat more.’ I ate like three or four times before I went out. So made sure that I’m full of energy.”

Lightning and rain also suspended play Friday afternoon. They’re playing TPC Kuala Lumpur’s East Course, a week after Justin Thomas successfully defended his title on the West Course in the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic.

Feng won the 2014 tournament for the last of her four LPGA Tour titles.

“Coming back here, I’ve had so many good memories that I’m really relaxed and really enjoying the week,” Feng said. “Of course, I think that really helps me to bring out my ‘A’ game.”

She bogeyed the par-4 11th before the delay, then reeled off birdies on par-5 12th, par-4 14th, par-3 15th and par-5 16th. She made a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 sixth in a front-nine 31.

Feng was third in the Olympics in August, the start of a string of five top-four finishes – the best a second behind Ha Na Jang three weeks ago in Taiwan.

Nordqvist was 5 under for the round. She has six LPGA Tour victories, successfully defending her ShopRite LPGA Classic title in June in New Jersey. The former Arizona State player lost a playoff to Brittany Lang in the U.S. Women’s Open in July at CordeValle.

Amy Yang was third at 11 under with three holes left.

Suzann Pettersen (66) and Candie Kung (three holes left) were 9 under, and top-ranked Lydia Ko (65) and Chella Choi (67) were 8 under.

Playing her first tournament since firing caddie Jason Hamilton, Ko rebounded from a bogey-double bogey finish Friday that left her eight strokes back.

“I’ve just got to focus on my game,” Ko said. “That’s what I tried to do yesterday and today, and that’s how I got to this position, so I think I have to do the same thing for tomorrow.”

Malaysia’s Sargunan Suntharaj is carrying the 19-year-old New Zealander’s clubs. Hamilton shifted to Jang.

Pettersen birdied six of the first eight and made another on 12, then returned from the break to hit into the water and make a double bogey on the par-3 15th. She birdied the 18th.

Michelle Wie was 7 under with three holes left.

Paula Creamer shot a 64 before the storm hit to get to 6 under. The American played the first eight holes in 5 under. She opened with a birdie on 10, bogeyed 11, made four straight birdies, parred the par-5 seventh and birdied the eighth.

“I started on the back nine, second off today, you get really good greens,” Creamer said. “But I played great. I hit a lot of really good iron shots. Made a lot of good putts. Just tried to keep the momentum going. I could have shot a lot more under par, but I’ll definitely take my 7 under.”

She closed with a triple bogey Thursday in a 72, and had a double bogey Friday in a 71.

“If you take those two things away, I’d be pretty much right in the mix of things and I know that,” Creamer said. “I’ve been playing well and putting well and my short game is on point. It’s just putting them all together and hopefully I can do it tomorrow.”

Stacy Lewis was 1 under after a 70 in her first event since mid-September.

Second-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn also shot 70, leaving her even par. She has a tour-high five victories – one more than Ko – and leads the money list and the Race to CME Globe and player of the year standings.

SHANGHAI (AP) – Hideki Matsuyama of Japan kept a clean card Saturday and made just enough birdies for a 4-under 68 to maintain his three-shot lead in the HSBC Champions.

Matsuyama had made 19 birdies over the opening two rounds. He was even more satisfied with the third round because he played bogey-free for the first time all week at Sheshan International and didn’t give anyone much of a chance to close the gap.

Matsuyama made three of his birdies on the par 5s, including the final hole when he belted a 3-wood from 248 yards over the corner of the lake and onto the green, and he nearly holed the 25-foot eagle attempt.

“That was a big birdie, to take the lead from two shots to three,” he said.

Matsuyama was at 17-under 199 as he goes for his first World Golf Championship title.

Defending champion Russell Knox made a pair of birdies on the back nine and to keep in range, though he never could get closer than two shots of Matsuyama. Knox also shot a 68 and will be in the final group for the second straight year at the HSBC Champions.

Joining them will be Daniel Berger, who has used his short game to stay in contention. That was never more evident than the 18th hole, when he pushed his fairway metal into the middle of the lake and still managed to get up-and-down from the fairway to save par. Berger shot a 67 and was four shots behind.

Francesco Molinari, who won this WGC in 2010, had a 68 and joined Bill Haas (70) at 12-under 204.

Rory McIlroy tried to make a run and pulled off what he called one of the best short-game shots of his career for an unlikely birdie on the par-5 eighth. After sailing his 3-wood well right of the fairway on a thin patch of muddy grass, McIlroy faced a 50-yard shot over a creek with the pin on that side of the green. He hit a hard, low shot into the bank and it popped onto the green about 15 feet away, and he made the putt.

That got him within four of the lead, but the four-time major champion began dropping too many shots to keep the momentum. McIlroy needed two late birdies to salvage a 37 on the back nine, and his 70 left him eight shots behind.

Rickie Fowler also tried to get back in the game with a birdie-eagle start. He birdied two of the last three holes for a 68, but that was no better than what Matsuyama managed and Fowler remained seven shots behind.

The shot of the day came from Matt Kuchar, minus the reward.

He made a hole-in-one on the par-3 17th, with a car perched behind the tee for whoever made an ace. Kuchar happened to read the fine print, however. Because the tee had been moved forward, there was a notice that the car would not be awarded Saturday because insurance only covered a tee shot of 200 yards.

“That was probably one of the saddest hole-in-ones I’ve ever had,” Kuchar said after a 68 to finish eight shots behind.

Matsuyama will try to cap off a strong stretch of golf dating to his fifth-place finish in the Tour Championship. He won the Japan Open two weeks ago, followed that with a runner-up finish in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia, and now takes a three-shot lead into the final round of the HSBC Champions.

Matsuyama’s only birdie on a hole other than a par 5 was at No. 9. He wasn’t making as many birdies, though he thought this round Saturday was the right recipe as he moves closer to the trophy.

“The first two days, making lots of birdies, it’s a lot of fun,” Matsuyama said. “But today, when you’re in a position to win, playing smart and making no bogeys was very satisfying for me today.”

Knox was in a position of chasing, and having seen Matsuyama all day, he had a good idea of what it will take.

“I’m going to have to be foot down, be aggressive and try and catch him,” Knox said. “He’s playing very well. He drove the ball in play a lot. He’s an extremely aggressive iron player, and when he’s on, he’s as good as anyone. I’m not going to give up my title without a big fight tomorrow. I look forward to every minute and see what happens.”

JACKSON, Miss. – Grayson Murray and his caddie had a discussion before his final hole that centred on playing it safe or using his driver.

It was a short conversation.

“Driver, man,” Murray said as he recounted the conversation. “Let’s try to make birdie.”

Turned out to be another good decision in a day full of them. After a solid drive on the 416-yard par 4 and a nearly perfect wedge from 89 yards, the 23-year-old PGA Tour rookie made a short birdie putt for a 7-under 65 and a two-shot lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship.

Murray started his day with a bogey at No. 10, but then made eight birdies to take a two-shot advantage over Greg Owen and Seamus Power. The leader was at 12-under 132.

Owen, a 44-year-old Englishman who has never won a tournament on tour, has shot back-to-back 67s to put himself in contention.

“It’s a good start – I’m happy,” Owen said. “It’s nice to get out this year and get back playing and playing decent and holing some putts. But there’s a long, long way to go.”

Power had a 69. Lucas Glover (69), Trey Mullinax (70), Graham DeLaet (69) and Brandon Hagy (68) were three strokes back.

Kevin Streelman had a two-shot lead after shooting a 63 in the first round, but struggled to a 73 to fall four strokes behind Murray. Cody Gribble was one of the big movers, shooting a 63 to pull within four shots.

But the story on Friday was about Murray, who is on the PGA Tour just a few years after a nomadic college career that included stops at four schools _ Wake Forest, East Carolina, UNC Greensboro and Arizona State.

Now he’s leading a tour event going into the weekend in just his third career tournament.

“We practice to get in this position,” Murray said. “We don’t practice to make cuts, we practice to win golf tournaments. I know I have the game to win a golf tournament.”

Murray said he expects plenty of competition over the weekend with 13 players within four shots of the lead. Nearly ideal conditions at the Country Club of Jackson have led to plenty of birdies.

“There’s a lot of good players, there’s a lot of birdies to be made on this course,” Murray said. “But there’s also some bogeys if you’re not in the fairways. So just keep it in the short grass, give myself as many chances as I have done on the first two days.”

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Amy Yang holed a pitching wedge for eagle on the par-4 11th hole and stretched her lead to three strokes Friday in the hot, humid and stormy Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia.

The 27-year-old South Korean player shot a 2-under 69 to reach 10-under 132 at TPC Kuala Lumpur. Her 125-yard shot on 11 hit on the front of the green, hopped and rolled in.

Anna Nordqvist, Mi Jung Hur and Candie Kung were tied for second after the round that was delayed 1 hour, 43 minutes because of lightning – accompanied by heavy rain – with the last group in the 16th fairway.

A day after opening with a 63 to miss her own course record by a stroke, Yang parred the first 10 holes before the eagle. She made her first bogey of the week three holes later, hitting into the water on the par-4 14th. She returned from the delay – and lunch – to hole a 20-footer for birdie on the par-5 16th.

Michelle Wie followed her opening 66 with a 70 to drop four strokes behind.

SHANGHAI – Hideki Matsuyama made nine birdies in suddenly chilly conditions for a 7-under 65 that gave him a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the HSBC Champions.

Neither the rain in the opening round nor the bone-chilling cold on Friday seem to matter to the Japanese star, who has made 19 birdies over 36 holes at Sheshan International that got the attention of the players chasing him.

Matsuyama was at 13-under 131.

Defending champion Russell Knox missed a couple of birdie chances late and still had a 68, while Bill Haas shot a 67. They were at 10-under 134.

Rory McIlroy, needing a victory to make it three straight years with a World Golf Championships title, did his best to get back in the game. He was slowed only by an errant tee shot on the 16th that led to his only bogey in a round of 66. McIlroy was six shots behind.

Rickie Fowler started with a pair of bogeys and never quite recovered. He shot a 73 and slipped seven shots back.

“This felt like a cold day at Pebble Beach,” said Daniel Berger, who had a 70 and was in the group five shots behind.

Not everyone handled the brittle conditions. Adam Scott had a pair of double bogeys on par 5s and shot an 80. Kevin Kisner, a runner-up at Sheshan International a year ago, took a 9 on the final hole for an 80. Wyndham Championship winner Si Woo Kim shot 81.

Matsuyama sure didn’t see a 66 when he was on the range and the wind began to strengthen, especially on a Sheshan International course where he tied for 41st and withdrew twice in his three appearances.

During the warm-up this morning, it was starting to get windy and I thought maybe just a couple under par would be a good score,” Matsuyama said. ”So I’m really happy with how it ended up today. It was windy and it was cold. The ball, it’s hard to control. It was tough out there today.”

His attitude helped. Given his past experiences, Matsuyama figured he would at least try to enjoy himself and 19 birdies in two days certainly helped.

One goal for Haas over the weekend was to try to make Matsuyama sweat a little, a tall task given how well he is putting and more cold weather in the forecast. Haas did his part to keep up by starting the back nine with back-to-back birdies and dropping only one shot.

Knox ran off three birdies in a four-hole stretch on the front nine, and then hung on when the weather was at its worst.

“It turned nasty with four or five holes to go,” Knox said. “I had a lot of shots from 200 yards, which fortunately is a strength of mine because I don’t hit it very far. It was a battle out there. I’m happy to be done.”

It remains a battle for U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson, who braved the conditions in a short-sleeved shirt, and then a short-sleeved rain jacket. He went bogey-birdie-double bogey around the turn, tried to turn it around with an eagle on the par-5 14th, and then followed that by going bogey-birdie-bogey, the last one a three-putt. He had another 74 and was at 4-over 148, leaving him 17 shots behind.

He played with Patrick Reed, also in short sleeves, and toward the bottom of the pack.

McIlroy thought a round of 66 would get him back in the mix, and it at least got him going in the right direction. As well as he played, he was surprised to see Matsuyama do one shot better in the cold wind.

Still, he was where he wanted to be going into the weekend. McIlroy made up more ground in fewer holes, so he wasn’t worried with two rounds remaining. The only concern was whether Matsuyama could keep this up.

Matsuyama won the Phoenix Open in early February, and then finally got back on track by winning the Japan Open two weeks ago and finishing runner-up to Justin Thomas last week at the CIMB Classic in Malaysia.

“He’s playing very well and he’ll be tough to catch,” McIlroy said. “But I feel like from what I saw out there today, if I can keep that sort of golf going over the next two days, I should have a chance.”