GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tiger Woods couldn’t have asked for much more at his first Wyndham Championship.

He’s playing with confidence. His scores show it. And now he’ll play a Sunday round that matters.

Woods shot a 2-under 68 in the third round Saturday, leaving him two strokes behind leader and longtime friend Jason Gore in a three-way tie for second.

Gore had a career-best 62 to reach 15-under 195 at Sedgefield Country Club.

“I need to go out there tomorrow and make a run and get myself up there and make some birdies,” Woods said. “There’s a bunch of guys … at 13 (under). There’s a whole slew of guys at 12, 11, 10. Anybody can make a run and shoot the score Jason and Jonas (Blixt) did.”

Woods – whose streak of 28 holes without a bogey ended on the 18th when his 6-foot par putt lipped out – reeled off 10 straight pars before briefly moving within one stroke of Gore with a birdie on the par-3 16th.

“I felt very steady from the word `go,'” Woods said.

Blixt and Scott Brown joined Woods at 13 under. Blixt shot a career-best 62, and Brown had a 66.

Former Wyndham winners Webb Simpson (64) and Brandt Snedeker (67) were three strokes back along with Paul Casey (66), Jim Herman (66) and Cameron Percy (67).

Woods was poised to make a run at his first win in more than two years – one that would earn him enough points to clinch a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs opener next week in New Jersey. Depending on the math, a solo second-place finish also might be enough for Woods, who’s at No. 187.

“I think it’s awesome to see him playing well again, to see him playing like Tiger Woods,” Gore said, “because that’s what we all want to see.”

He also moved one step closer to his 80th PGA Tour victory – and first since the 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Playing the Wyndham for the first time in an effort to hone his game and earn a spot in The Barclays, Woods is attempting to win a tournament in his first try for the first time since 1999 – when he won the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Spain.

For him, this day was about consistently making pars – 15 in all, including a remarkable save on the 10th with a 24-foot putt.

“The putter just felt really good. My pace, I felt like I could be aggressive,” Woods said. “I took a few runs at putts and ripped them past the hole, but I never felt like I was going to miss any of them. I took a rip at them. Some I made, some I didn’t.”

His only birdie on the back nine was an important one. He plopped his tee shot on 16 about 12 feet from the hole and rolled in the putt to move to 14 under before giving that stroke back on his final hole.

That bogey prevented a final Sunday pairing with Gore – who was instead paired with Blixt. Gore says he’s known Woods “since we’ve been 12 years old” as kids in California.

Gore started the round six strokes off the lead. He took over the top spot at 14 under with a birdie on the 15th, then closed with another on the 18th – hitting his second shot to 7 to set up his ninth birdie of the day.

At No. 166 on the points list, Gore put himself in position for his second career win on tour and his first since the 84 Lumber Classic in 2005. He has just 15 top-10 finishes in the past decade.

“Contrary to popular belief,” Gore quipped, “I’m still a good golfer.”

His big round came in relative anonymity because once again, an overflow crowd followed Woods’ every move.

Woods began the day sharing the lead with rookie Tom Hoge at 11 under, but claimed sole possession for the first time with a birdie on the first hole.

Blixt joined him at 12 under moments later, then jumped ahead with a birdie on the 17th. Woods caught him by rolling in a 5-foot birdie putt on the fifth before Gore shot past them both.

Still, Blixt has given himself a shot to make the playoffs and earn his tour card for next year. He’s at No. 135 on the points list and No. 147 on the money list, and said he’d be “very pleased if I secured my job.

“A win will take care of that,” he added. “Shoot another 62, I should have a good chance.”

Erik Compton, a two-time heart transplant recipient who shared the first-round lead, withdrew before his third round with an injured left ankle but says he’s hopeful of playing in The Barclays.

Had he pulled out a day earlier, the cut line would have moved to 2 under and 19 more players – including bubble players Michael Putnam (No. 134) and Tom Gillis (No. 138) would still be around this weekend.

Abbotsford, B.C., native Adam Hadwin finished the round 4-under 66 on the strength of five birdies and an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole. He is 8-under for the competition and is T27.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tiger Woods signed up for his first Wyndham Championship knowing a win would definitively keep his season from ending.

He’s halfway there.

Woods shot a 5-under 65 on Friday to share the second-round lead with rookie Tom Hoge.

“I’m only at the halfway point,” Woods said. “Only 36 holes. We’ve still got a long way to go.”

Woods and Hoge were at 11-under 129. Hoge shot a 67.

The sport’s biggest name put himself in prime position to contend for his first victory in more than two years, one that would send him into the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Woods followed his best round since 2013 – a first-day 64 – with one almost as good.

He made his big move up the leaderboard on the back nine, with birdies on Nos. 12 and 13 and an eagle on the par-5 13th that gave him a share of the lead.

“I just couldn’t get anything out of my rounds (before this tournament) and a couple lucky bounces here, take advantage of those opportunities – it’s just the flow,” Woods said.

Now he’ll spend Saturday playing with an unfamiliar rookie. When asked if he would recognize Hoge to see him, Woods responded: “No, I wouldn’t. What is it, or him?”

“I look on the Champions Tour leaderboard and I know every one of those guys because I played against them and I played with them,” Woods said. “Now I come out here, I don’t really know a lot of people.”

Davis Love III and Chad Campbell were a stroke back. Campbell shot 65, and the 51-year-old Love had 66.

Brandt Snedeker matched the tournament record with a 61 that put him in a group of six players two strokes behind Woods and Hoge.

But for the second straight day, the big story at Sedgefield Country Club was Woods.

He missed the cuts in the last three majors and hasn’t finished better than a tie for 17th at the Masters. At No. 187 on the FedEx Cup points list, he would definitely crack the top 125 with a win and qualify for the Barclays next week in New Jersey. Depending on how the math works out, a solo second-place finish also might be enough.

He took advantage of some prime scoring conditions during the first round, shooting that 64 on a course softened by showers that morning. That left him two strokes off the lead.

And then, playing under a hot afternoon sun that sped up those undulating greens, Woods almost matched it.

“I wasn’t quite as sharp as I was yesterday,” he said.

He capped that run of consecutive birdies with a 25-foot putt on the 13th that drew a mighty roar from the huge gallery.

Then came his eagle.

He placed his second shot about 10 feet behind the hole and, after his downhill putt fell into the hole, he followed with his trademark fist pump.

And as strong as his round was, it also easily could have been even better.

He settled for birdie on the par-5 fifth when his 10-foot eagle putt lipped out, then missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the next hole. He left a 10-foot birdie putt an inch from the hole on the ninth.

“I’ve shot 59 and I left a couple shots out there,” Woods said. “The great thing about golf, you can always get a little bit better.”

Love, a former University of North Carolina player whose two wins in the tournament came across town at Forest Oaks Country Club, played a practice round with Woods on Tuesday. Several times this week, Woods has referred to pointers Love gave him, notably

Love reeled off three straight birdies early in his round before closing with 10 straight pars.

“It will look boring on the card … but I made some nice putts for par, and some good up and downs, and kept the round together,” Love said.

Hoge, who was born about 70 miles away in Statesville but grew up in North Dakota, shared the first-round lead with William McGirt and two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton.

Hoge, who had two top-10 finishes in the past month, followed his opening-round 62 with another low number with birdies on three of his final five holes.

“Obviously, a new position for me,” Hoge said.

Snedeker – who won the Wyndham in 2007, its last year at Forest Oaks – shot just the fifth 61 in the history of the event and the first since Tim Herron three years ago.

He finished his round with back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth holes, closing by sinking a 50-foot putt.

“I was trying to shoot 7 under in my mind, get back in the mix, and to shoot 9 (under) was definitely something I wasn’t expecting on the range this morning, but great to get it,” Snedeker said.

For some players, the priority was to earn enough points to qualify for the playoffs or keep their tour card for next year.

Luke Donald, at No. 124 on the points list, made the cut of 3 under. So did No. 129 Camilo Villegas – the defending champion – and No. 125 Charl Schwartzel.

For others, their bubbles burst: No. 131 Billy Hurley III, who came to Greensboro the day after his father’s funeral in an attempt to secure his card, shot a 70 and missed the cut.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tiger Woods kept saying his game was getting better, even though his results didn’t show it.

On his first day at the Wyndham Championship, his score finally did.

Woods had his best round in more than two years Thursday, shooting a 6-under 64.

Two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton, William McGirt and Tom Hoge shared the first-round lead at 62.

Morgan Hoffman, Jim Herman and Derek Ernst followed at 63, and Martin Kaymer, Davis Love III and Carl Pettersson joined Woods at 64.

It was Woods’ lowest score on the PGA Tour since a 61 in the second round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2013.

He and the others took advantage of a low-scoring day at what he called a “tricky” Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club that gave up bunches of birdies after morning showers softened the fairways and greens.

“When it’s like this,” Woods said, “you’ve got to throw darts and go low.”

And while Compton and McGirt threatened the tournament record, the clear story of the day was Woods.

That low score couldn’t have come at a better time for the biggest name in the sport.

He set the tone by holing a 54-foot chip shot on his first hole, the par-4 10th, for the first of his seven birdies.

“Finally,” he said, “I got something out of my round.”

Woods arrived insisting he was playing better than his recent results might indicate.

He had missed the cut in three straight majors and had not finished better than a tie for 17th at the Masters. He’s at No. 187 on the FedEx Cup points list and probably needs a win to move into the top 125 and earn a playoff spot.

Yet he said after last week’s early exit from the PGA Championship that those results belied the improvement he was making in his game.

“I know it’s crazy to say, but I wasn’t playing that poorly at PGA,” Woods said. “Any borderline shot (at Whistling Straits) I never got away with it, and that’s the way it goes. I felt like I was hitting the ball good enough and just kept progressing, and today was just a continuation of it.”

Especially on that first hole.

His shot from the left side of the green landed about 8 feet from the cup and rolled in.

“I went for the shot, and instead of playing something more conservative, the greens were hard and fast, and I wanted to play something long,” Woods said. “I got aggressive with it, and I went for it, and I pulled it off. … I could see it going in.”

Hoge, playing in the day’s final grouping, made a late charge up the leaderboard, closing his round with a 5-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

Compton, who started on the back nine, finished with a 29 on the front nine with seven birdies in that span.

“Any time you can break 30 in nine holes, you’re obviously doing something really cool,” Compton said.

It’s the latest positive for a 35-year-old who earned his tour card in 2012 – four years after his second heart transplant.

He’s chasing his first victory, and so is McGirt, who finished in a tie for eighth here last year. At No. 86 on the points list, McGirt is in virtually no danger of missing the playoffs.

Compton – who’s closer to the cutoff at No. 114 – is just trying not to lose any ground.

Meanwhile, for the others closer to the postseason bubble, things are a little more stressful.

Ernst, who’s at No. 178 and is playing in the final tournament of the 2-year exemption he earned for his lone victory – at the Wells Fargo Championship in 2013 – shot the best round of his four-year career.

But perhaps nobody’s dealing with more than Billy Hurley III.

Hurley’s first round came two days after he attended the funeral of his father, who died last week of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The 33-year-old Hurley is at No. 131 on the points list and is only here this week because he’s trying to secure his PGA Tour card for next year.

“It wasn’t really a hard decision” to play, Hurley said, “but it’s certainly hard to do.”

He said he nearly felt overwhelmed on the putting green, “almost didn’t know what I was doing in some ways” during his first handful of holes, then “scrambled my way around” the back nine.

By the end of his 69, Hurley said he “felt like almost a golfer again.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. – It’s now or never for many players at the Wyndham Championship – the last chance to qualify for golf’s postseason.

That group includes Tiger Woods.

The biggest name in the sport is playing the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season for the first time, in an effort to get his game back on track and make a last-gasp push for the playoffs.

“I’ve started to build. I just need to get more consistent with everything, and start stringing together not just holes, not just rounds but tournaments,” Woods said Wednesday. “That’s why this tournament’s important to me. Hopefully I can win it, get into the playoffs and play a bunch of golf.”

Woods, who missed the cut at the PGA Championship last week, beat last Friday’s deadline to enter the Wyndham but didn’t finalize his commitment until Monday.

He said he had “a blast” playing a pro-am round Wednesday with NBA All-Star Chris Paul – a native of nearby Winston-Salem who starred at Wake Forest.

And now he wants to stick around for a while.

In 10 previous events this year, Woods has missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another.

He’s had three rounds in the 80s, his best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters and his best week came at The Greenbrier Classic where he finished just six shots out of the lead.

He’s eager to test his game on the Donald Ross-designed course at Sedgefield Country Club that puts a premium on strong iron play and features fast, undulating Bermuda grass greens that Woods is trying to quickly figure out.

During a soggy pro-am, though, the course played a bit differently with more, well, woods.

“It’s going to be a lot of irons off the tee, but it wasn’t the case because it’s so wet,” Woods said. “Balls are plugging. Lot of mud balls out there.”

The Wyndham has relished its spot as the last chance for the four’s bubble players to force their way into the FedEx Cup playoffs, which begin next week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Woods – who’s at No. 187 on the points list – is pretty far from the bubble. Only the top 125 players will make it to The Barclays, which means he probably needs a victory in his first visit here.

Recent history seems to be against him: Last year, only one player outside the top 125 – Sang-Moon Bae – earned enough points here to move into the playoffs. A 14th-place tie helped him jump from No. 126 to No. 120. The year before, nobody did it.

“If I don’t win this event,” Woods said, “I’ll have my offseason early.”

Also on the bubble: Luke Donald is 124th, followed by Charl Schwartzel, Scott Langley, Seung-Yul Noh, S.J. Park and last year’s winner, Camilo Villegas. The top 125 in the standings also will earn 2015-16 tour cards.

“There’s so much to play for,” said Webb Simpson, the 2011 winner who’s safely at No. 49 on the points list. “It’s definitely on guys’ minds, I think.”

This would rank as one of the best fields in the 76-year history of the tournament even if Woods hadn’t made his last-minute decision to play Sedgefield.

Adam Scott joins Woods as two of the six former world No. 1 ranked players in the field. Until Woods’ late entry, Scott was arguably the biggest attraction for the event.

He also was in a pro-am foursome that was immediately behind the one with Woods and Paul, and with so much of the gallery following them, Scott could go through his round in relative anonymity.

“There’s no doubt about things created by Tiger,” Scott said. “It happens everywhere he goes. You can tell how passionate the local people and everyone involved in the tournament here are about this tournament, and it means such a great deal to them to have Tiger Woods in the field. I think it’s fantastic.

“We’re in for a great week, no matter what,” he added.

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Tiger Woods will play the Wyndham Championship for the first time.

In an email to The Associated Press on Monday, agent Mark Steinberg confirmed that Woods will play in Greensboro this week.

That ends a few days of uncertainty around Sedgefield County Club, the site of the final tournament of golf’s regular season.

Woods created a stir by entering the field just ahead of the deadline last Friday.

But after closing out a 73 and missing the cut at the PGA Championship in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he hedged a bit. He said he would “go through it with my team” to “see if that’s the right move or not.”

On Monday morning, Wyndham tournament director Mark Brazil sent out a brief tweet: “Bam! Tiger is coming!”

The first round begins Thursday.

The Wyndham annually is the last chance for the PGA Tour’s bubble players to play their way into the FedEx Cup playoffs. They begin next week at The Barclays in New Jersey.

Woods – who’s at No. 187 on the points list – comes to Greensboro rather far from the bubble. Only the top 125 players reach the playoffs.

Mathematically, Woods will need to either win (and earn 500 points) or finish alone in second place (300 points) to crack the top 125.

Last year, only one player outside the top 125 – Sang-Moon Bae – earned enough points here to move into the playoffs, jumping from No. 126 to No. 120 after his tie for 14th. Nobody did it in 2013.

Now the question is how long Woods will stick around at Sedgefield.

In 10 events this year, Woods missed the cut in four of them and withdrew from another. He missed the cut in the last three majors.

He had three rounds in the 80s. His best finish was a tie for 17th at the Masters, a remarkable effort coming off a two-month break to fix a short game that turned shockingly bad in Phoenix and San Diego. His best week was The Greenbrier Classic. While he tied for 32nd, he finished six shots out of the lead. In the other four events where he made the cut, he was no closer than 10 shots.

At Whistling Straits last week, he said his game building, and that he found a key to his putting Saturday morning “but the damage had already been done.”

Now for the first time, he’ll test that putter on the Donald Ross-designed turtleback greens at Sedgefield.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Given a third straight chance to finally win a major, Jason Day promised a fight to the finish in the PGA Championship.

Turns out the biggest fight was to hold back the tears.

Worried that this year might turn out to be a major failure, Day never gave Jordan Spieth or anyone else a chance Sunday. He delivered a record-setting performance at Whistling Straits that brought him a major championship he started to wonder might never happen.

Day was in tears before he even tapped in for par and a 5-under 67 for a three-shot victory. He sobbed on the shoulder of Colin Swatton, his caddie and longtime coach who rescued Day as a 12-year-old struggling to overcome the death of his father.

And then came high praise from Spieth in the scoring trailer when golf’s new No. 1 player told him, “There’s nothing I could do.”

“I didn’t expect I was going to cry,” Day said. “A lot of emotion has come out because I’ve been so close so many times and fallen short. To be able to play the way I did today, especially with Jordan in my group, I could tell that he was the favorite. Just to be able to finish the way I did was amazing.”

Three shots ahead with three holes to play on a course with trouble everywhere, Day blasted a drive down the fairway on the par-5 16th and hit a towering 4-iron into 20 feet. He bit his lower lip, swatted his caddie on the arm, knowing his work was almost done.

The two-putt birdie put him at 20-under par, and two closing pars gave him the record to par in majors, breaking by one shot the 19 under of Tiger Woods at St. Andrews in the 2000 British Open. Day finished at 20-under 268, not knowing until it was over that it was a record.

What really mattered was that shiny Wanamker Trophy at his side.

He shared the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open and the British Open and had to watch someone else celebrate.

“Not being able to finish, it would have been tough for me mentally to really kind of come back from that,” Day said. “Even though I feel like I’m a positive person, I think that in the back of my mind something would have triggered and I would have gone, `Maybe I can’t really finish it off.’

“It felt like I was mentally and physically grinding it out as hard as I could,” he said. “I wasn’t going to stop fighting until it over.”

Spieth gave it his best shot, but even the Masters and U.S. Open champion could tell what he was up against the way the 27-year-old Australian powered one drive after another and didn’t let anyone closer than the two-shot lead with which he started the final round.

“He played like he’d won seven or eight majors,” Spieth said. “He took it back. He wailed it. It was a stripe show.”

Spieth has the greatest consolation possible. With his runner-up finish, he replaced Rory McIlroy at No. 1 in the world.

“This is as easy a loss as I’ve ever had because I felt that I not only couldn’t do much about it as the round went on, I also accomplished one of my lifelong goals in the sport of golf. That will never be taken away from me now. I’ll always be a No. 1 player in the world.”

Spieth set a record of his own. By closing with a 68, he set a record by playing the four majors in 54-under par, breaking by one the mark that Woods set in 2000. The difference is that Woods won two majors by a combined 23 shots.

That also speaks to the depth of golf in this generation, and Day is the latest example. He moved to No. 3 in the world, meaning the top four in the world are all under 27 and have combined to win five of the last six majors.

“As long as I am healthy, I feel like I’m going to be there a long time,” Day said. “I still want to accomplish that No. 1 goal of mine, which is to be the best player in the world. I’m still motivated and still very hungry for that, even after this win.”

Branden Grace of South Africa had another mistake on the back nine in a major that cost him. Grace was tied for the lead at the U.S. Open when he hit his tee shot on the railroad tracks and out-of-bounds at Chambers Bay. This time, he was two shots behind when he went long of the 10th green and made double bogey. He closed with a 69 and finished third, five shots behind.

Justin Rose got within two shots until making a double bogey for the third straight day. He closed with a 70 and finished fourth.

Day faced enormous pressure of having a lead for the first time going into the final round, trying to avoid becoming the first player since the PGA Championship went to stroke play in 1958 to have at least a share of the 54-hole lead in three straight majors without winning.

It sure didn’t show, even if he felt it every step of the way.

“I knew today was going to be tough, but I didn’t realize how tough it was going to be,” Day said. “I learned a lot about myself, being able to finish the way I did. The experiences that I’ve had in the past with previous major finishes has definitely helped me prepare myself for a moment like this.”

Canadian Nick Taylor moved up the leaderboard to T68 after a round of 1-under 71 on Sunday.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – With six straight 3s on his card, Jason Day looked determined as ever Saturday to finally get that first major. He had a 6-under 66 and built a two-shot lead in the PGA Championship, the third straight major he has at least a share of the lead going into the final round.

One look at the leaderboard at the name right behind him – Jordan Spieth – made it clear it won’t be easy.

Spieth was five shots behind and had two holes to play when he capped off a stunning charge along the back nine at Whistling Straits with six birdies over his last eight holes, including three in a row at the end that gave him a 7-under 65 to get into the final group.

“Very pleased to have a chance to win another major,” Spieth said.

He is trying to join Tiger Woods (2000) and Ben Hogan (1953) as the only players to win three majors in one year, and Spieth hopes to rely on his experience of having already won the Masters and U.S. Open this year.

Day showed plenty of moxie, though.

After making a double bogey that cut his lead to one shot, and then failing to birdie the par-5 16th, he poured in a 25-foot birdie putt and pumped both arms to show how much it meant.

“One more day left,” Day said before heading off to the practice range before the sun set on this wild day along Lake Michigan. “I got to keep pushing forward, keep grinding, keep doing the best I can out there and see how it goes tomorrow.”

Saturday featured abundant sunshine and endless action, starting in the dead calm of the morning when Matt Jones finished the storm-delayed second round with two birdies for a two-shot lead. In the hunt at a major for the first time, Jones kept his cool even when his drive landed in a hospitality tent left of the ninth fairway and he chose to play off the blue carpet, over the white fence and just off the green.

But he imploded at the end, dropping four shots over the last four holes for a 73.

Day looked like he was headed that direction. One moment it looked as though the 27-year-old Australian was pulling away. The next minute he was pulling himself together.

He played a six-hole stretch around the turn in 6 under, which included a 15-foot eagle at No. 11 for his first lead of the round. When he stuffed another approach close on the 14th hole for birdie, he was 16 under.

One swing changed everything.

He tugged a 5-iron into a bunker left of the 15th green and was surprised by the amount of sand. The first shot didn’t make it up the slope and rolled back into the sand, and Day wound up with a double bogey right about the time Spieth shifted into another gear.

Spieth was trying to stay close enough to have a chance on Sunday. The volunteers were slow to post Day’s double bogey on the large leaderboard on the 18th green, which Spieth couldn’t help but notice as he lined up his 7-foot putt.

“I saw Jason was at 16 under and I said, `You’ve got to be kidding me. When is he going to slow down?'” Spieth said. “I saw that he was 16 under with four holes to go, thinking he could get to 17 (under pretty easily). I need to make this to have a chance within four of the lead. And then I think he’s dropped a couple of shots since then. But I did all I could do to finish off the round.”

Day did his part, even after failing to make birdie on the par-5 16th. Instead of getting down, he hit 4-iron into 25 feet on the 17th hole and rolled in the birdie.

He was at 15-under 201.

This was hardly a two-man race. Branden Grace of South Africa, tied for the lead with three holes to play in the U.S. Open when he hit a tee shot out-of-bounds onto the train tracks at Chambers Bay, holed a bunker shot for birdie on the 18th hole for a 64 to finish three shots behind.

“It’s another chance,” Grace said. “This is what we all play for. We all play to give ourselves the opportunity to get close to a major championship and we’re all here.”

Justin Rose also was three shots behind, even with a double bogey on the fourth hole for the second straight day. Rose also missed the 18th and made bogey, giving him one more shot he just make up against Day.

Still in the mix was Martin Kaymer, who had a 65 and was four shots behind. Kaymer won the PGA at Whistling Straits five years ago.

Day already has two wins this year and plenty of heartache in the majors. He was in a four-way tie for the lead at Chambers Bay while coping with vertigo symptoms, and he faded on the last day. A month ago, he needed birdie on the last hole at St. Andrews to get into a playoff at the British Open, and it stopped just short.

“It’s just all been trending in the right direction,” he said Saturday morning after finishing his second round.

Canadian Nick Taylor posted a third-round of 3-over par 75.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – The second round of the PGA Championship offered a little bit of everything Friday.

Except a conclusion.

On one side of the golf course, Jordan Spieth was piling up enough birdies to momentarily tie for the lead at Whistling Straits. On the other side with far less attention, Hiroshi Iwata ran off five birdies and an eagle and tied the major championship record with a 63.

Dustin Johnson was losing ground in the rough and in the bunkers, falling out of the lead with three bogeys in a four-hole stretch. John Daly lost his cool and then lost a 6-iron when he heaved it in Lake Michigan.

And that was before a wicked storm that packed gusts up to 48 mph and suspended the second round.

Jason Day ran off three straight birdies and was tied for the lead with Matt Jones at 9-under par when players were taken off the course. The storm was severe enough to topple the main scoreboard at the entrance and rip flags off the poles atop some of the grandstands.

The round was to resume at 7 a.m.

Justin Rose pulled within one shot of the lead with back-to-back birdies. He headed to the 18th tee, feeling good about being able to finish.

“I opened my big mouth to the boys playing with us,” Rose said. “I said, `The end is in sight.’ And 30 seconds later, they blew the horn. So my name is mud all over here.”

Tiger Woods, for all his struggles in the majors this year, can at least say he made it to the weekend in three of them. He made the cut at the Masters. He missed the cut on Saturday at the wind-delayed British Open. There was still hope at the PGA Championship, though he was 4 over with five holes to play, two shots away from the projected cut.

The leaderboard was as clouded as the sky over Whistling Straits.

Seven players had at least a share of the lead at some point Friday, when a strong breeze in the morning gave way to steamy sunshine and virtually no wind until the storms moved in. When players were evacuated from the course, 11 players were separated by three shots.

David Lingmerth of Sweden made only four pars in his wild round of 70 and was the clubhouse leader at 7-under 137. One shot behind was a group that included Spieth, the Masters and U.S. Open champion who is very much in the picture to join Woods and Ben Hogan as the only players to win three majors in one year.

Scott Piercy (70) and Brendan Steele (69) joined Spieth at 6-under 138.

The star of the day was Iwata, a 34-year-old from Japan who had every reason to think his first appearance in the PGA Championship would be a short one. He opened with a 77 and still was 3 over when he reached the back nine. Iwata reeled off five birdies and an eagle, and he saved par on the 18th for a 63.

It was the 27th time that a player shot 63 in a major, 13 of those in the PGA Championship and most recently Jason Dufner at Oak Hill two years ago.

“When I came here, I was thinking just to make my game better and better and on Sunday, I can be in the top 10,” Iwata said through a translator.

Even with a record-tying score, he still has plenty of work ahead of him to do that. Iwata was at 4-under 140 and losing ground as one player after another took aim at Whistling Straits in good scoring conditions.

Day was through 14 holes while Jones, his fellow Australian, was through 12 holes and on the front nine.

Day shared the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open while coping with vertigo symptoms. He missed by one turn of the golf ball a birdie on the 18th hole at St. Andrews that would have put him in a playoff at the British Open. Now it looks like he gets yet another chance. He was thrilled to stop play, especially as the storm clouds turned dark and he had trouble with depth perception on some of his wedges.

“We’ll see how it goes tomorrow,” Day said. “We’ve got some scoring holes and some tough ones to finish on. But I’m real happy to be done.”

Dustin Johnson, the 18-hole leader, took a brief lead at 8 under until he ran into trouble on the par-5 11th with a wicked lie in the bunker that led to bogey. He added two more bogeys and was four shots out of the lead at 5 under.

“Hopefully, I can come back in the morning and make a couple birdies coming in, and then we’ll get the day started on Saturday,” he said.

Rory McIlroy had hopes of being a little closer to the lead. Coming off an ankle injury that has kept him out since the U.S. Open, he world’s No. 1 player went cold with the putter and had to settle for another round of 71 that put him at 2-under 142.

McIlroy was keeping pace with Spieth until a big turnaround on the 18th hole at the halfway point of their round. Spieth holed out from a bunker for birdie, while McIlroy went well left into knee-high hay, took two chips to reach the green and made double bogey.

“You’re going to have to have more of a short game to be able to salvage par sometimes,” he said. “I wasn’t quite able to do that today at points. But there’s still enough good stuff to give me encouragement and make me feel that I can shoot a low one tomorrow and get myself back into it.”

Woods had his work cut out for him. He opened with two quick birdies, only to give them back with a double bogey from the bunkers on the fourth hole.

As for Daly?

His tournament effectively ended on the seventh hole when he hit 4-iron into the lake, and then followed with two more tee shots with his 6-iron into the lake. After a fourth attempt found the green, Daly heaved his 6-iron into the lake and made 10. He shot 82 and missed the cut.

Canadian Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., is tied for 69th after a a 1-over 73. David Hearn of Brantford, Ont., shot a 1-under par and is tied for 76th at 3-over.

SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Rory McIlroy was nervous about his game. Jordan Spieth was frustrated with his putting.

Not so surprising about the opening round of the PGA Championship on Thursday was Dustin Johnson.

He was leading.

Shaking off a double dose of disappointment in the majors, Johnson breezed his way to a 6-under 66 in moderate morning conditions at Whistling Straits and wound up with a one-shot lead over David Lingmerth of Sweden. It was the fifth time in 13 rounds at the majors this year that Johnson had at least a share of the lead.

Just never on Sunday, which he knows all too well.

“It’s only the first round,” Johnson said.

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. McIlroy has not played since the U.S. Open, out for 53 days because of an injury to his left ankle and mildly curious whether his game would be sharp enough to compete. Adding to the buzz was playing with Spieth, the Masters and U.S. Open champion who is closing in on McIlroy’s No. 1 ranking.

“It’s not that. It’s more just being a little bit anxious coming back and seeing how my game is going to react whenever I’m put under a little bit of pressure and have a card in my hand and have to really score,” McIlroy said. “Once I got those first couple of holes out of the way, I felt like I settled into the round really nicely.”

Three birdies on the par 5s, and one big par save with his feet in the water, carried him to a 71.

Spieth doesn’t usually go 11 holes without making a putt of any length, and frustrations were starting wear on him until he chipped in from behind the 12th green for birdie which steadied him enough to match McIlroy with a 71.

Considering they played in a strong wind and tough afternoon conditions, it was a reasonable start.

It certainly was for Johnson.

He took three putts from 12 feet on the final hole at the U.S. Open to shockingly go from a chance to win to a runner-up finish behind Spieth. He had the 36-hole lead at St. Andrews until he disappeared on the weekend. And the PGA Championship was at Whistling Straits, where five years ago Johnson famously grounded his club in a bunker and lost out on a spot in the playoff because of the two-shot penalty.

It was like none of that ever happened.

He birdied the first two holes. He hit 4-iron to 30 feet and made eagle on No. 16. He added a trio of birdies on the front nine.

“Today was pretty easy, I would have to say,” Johnson said. “But I was swinging well and I was hitting the shots where I was looking. So anytime you’re doing that, it makes things a lot easier on you. The ball was going where I was looking. I was controlling it. In this wind it’s tough to do, but I did a great job of controlling the golf ball today.”

The one par McIlroy made on the par 5s was as big as his three birdies.

He pulled his third shot on the par-5 fifth hole into the water, and a double bogey looked likely. But his ball was sitting up in the water, so McIlroy rolled up his pant leg, splashed it out to 7 feet and saved par.

“The only thing I was trying not to do was get my feet wet,” McIlroy said. “Because if the water gets through this shoe, then the tape gets wet and then that would be a little more than just sort of annoying or uncomfortable for the rest of the day. But it was fine. It was a little bit deeper on the right side, so I just rolled my right trouser leg up and it was fine. I just had to remember to hit it hard. And I was very fortunate to escape with a par there.”

That shot made for good TV. Good for his soul was getting that first tee shot out of the way, and especially the 3-wood he hit pure as ever onto the green at the par-5 second that led to birdie.

“That was full bore, as good as I can do,” McIlroy said.

Spieth was far more boring in opening with 10 pars, and he was far more irritated. He had one birdie chance after another on the front nine and missed them all, trying to get the speed right and wondering how much the wind would affect it.

“I guessed wrong,” he said.

And then he started to press, and it nearly cost him. He wasted an easy birdie chance on the short 10th hole by chipping 12 feet by the hole. He three-putted from about 15 feet on the par-5 11th for a bogey. After going just long of the par-3 12th, he had to play a chip because of a sprinkler head in his line.

The chip came out hot, and Spieth figured it would have gone some 12 feet by the hole. Spieth said he was pleading it for it to hit the pin, if nothing else to keep it near the hole. It hit straight on and dropped for a birdie he badly needed.

“If I didn’t get that good break on 12, it could have been a different story the rest of the round,” he said.

The wind began to blow hard over the final hour of Johnson’s round, and it showed in the scores. Of the 14 players who broke 70, Lingmerth and Scott Piercy (68) were the only ones who faced the tougher afternoon conditions.

Tiger Woods might be one day away from the end of his season. Woods opened with a 75 and was in danger of missing the cut. In the four majors this year, he is 18-over par in the opening round with a scoring average of 76.

Canadian Nick Taylor posted an opening round of 73 to sit just above the projected cut. David Hearn opened with a round of 76.

HONOLULU – A Hawaii man has been sentenced to five years in prison for using Robert Allenby’s credit cards after the professional golfer said he was robbed and beaten in Honolulu.

According to the Honolulu prosecutor’s office, Owen Harbison was sentenced Wednesday.

He was arrested in February on identity theft and other charges. He pleaded guilty in June to using Allenby’s credit cards and ID to make purchases, including gift cards, jewelry and clothing.

Allenby recounted a bizarre saga earlier this year of having no memory of what happened for 2 1/2 hours after he left a Honolulu restaurant in January. He had missed the cut at the Sony Open and went to dinner. He said he later woke up in a park with a bloodied face.

It’s still unclear what happened.