One unlikely contender fell by the wayside Friday at the Northern Trust Open and another stepped up.
On Thursday, it was Camilo Villegas who shot 62 to shake things up in Los Angeles. On Friday he fell back to earth with a 74 and Jason Kokrak took his place.
“It was fun,” is how Kokrak described his day. Simple, straight-forward.
Kokrak, who has never won the PGA Tour, birdied five holes on the back nine, shot 64 and put himself at 10-under par at Riviera. It is his first-ever 36-hole lead on tour but he’ll go into the weekend with some big names primed to run him down.
Chez Reavie is not one of those big name players but he has won before. He birdied three of his final four holes and finished at nine-under, just one off Kokrak’s lead.
Two of the tour’s bombers will start the weekend just two back. Dustin Johnson (66) and Bubba Watson (68) are in at eight-under par along with Troy Merritt.
Rory McIlroy could have been a lot closer to Kokrak but he’s four back at six-under thanks to three bogeys and a sloppy final nine holes.
One big name who won’t be around for the weekend is Jordan Spieth. The world’s No. 1 player couldn’t recover from the 79 he shot on Thursday. He did make eight birdies on Friday but five bogeys left him with a 68 and at five-over he was down the road.
So was defending champion James Hahn, who got his first win here last year. Like Spieth, he was five-over and headed home.
