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PGA Championship second round: Will Tiger Woods make the cut? Can leader Brooks Koepka keep going low?

Koepka and Woods don't tee off until 1:49 p.m., but there's plenty of early action in Friday's second round, with world No. 1 Dustin Johnson charging up the leader board.

Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods and Francesco Molinari tee off at 1:49 p.m. Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship.
Brooks Koepka, Tiger Woods and Francesco Molinari tee off at 1:49 p.m. Friday in the second round of the PGA Championship.Read moreSeth Wenig / AP

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — The second round of the PGA Championship is underway at Bethpage Black, and the two questions that hang over play Friday are:

Can Brooks Koepka run and hide from the rest of the field?

Will Tiger Woods make the cut?

We’ll have to wait for those questions to be answered since Koepka, Woods and the third player in the group of recent major champions, Francesco Molinari, don’t tee off until 1:49 p.m.

Koepka shot a course-record 7-under-par 63 on Thursday and made it look easy. Only one player, Danny Lee, came close to matching him with a 64, but Lee came back to earth on Friday with a 41 that included a pair of double bogeys, and dropped to even-par after nine holes.

As for the 36-hole cut, made up of the low 70 players plus anyone tied for 70th place, 70 players shot 2-over-par 72 or better on the opening 18 holes, including Woods, who came in at that number. The way-too-early estimate of the cut would be about 4-over or 5-over depending on how strong the wind becomes in the afternoon.

According to the PGA Championship weather forecast, a front is expected to approach the area in the late morning and early afternoon, which will kick the wind speed up to 10 to 15 miles an hour with gusts of up to 25. The chance of rain increases to 30-40 percent in the afternoon with a 20 percent possibility of lightning.

While we wait for Koepka and Woods to start, there’s plenty of golf going on.

Featured morning groups

Dustin Johnson seems to fly under the radar unlike any player ranked No. 1 in the world before him, but he’s getting a lot of attention early in the second round of the PGA.

Johnson, whose only major championship came at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, overcame a bogey at his first hole, the 10th at Bethpage Black, with five birdies on his next seven holes. That got him to 5-under for the championship and in second place, two strokes behind Koepka.

Meanwhile, the golfer not named Koepka or Woods who seems to be receiving the most attention this week is Jordan Spieth, who can complete golf’s career Grand Slam with a win here this weekend.

Spieth opened with a 69 yesterday and birdied No. 11, his second hole, Friday to get to 2-under, but carded consecutive bogeys at 15 and 16 before a birdie at 17 got his round back to even par.

Jon Rahm, who is playing in the same group with Johnson and Spieth, has seen the wheels come off of his game. He has carded five bogeys in his first eight holes to drop to 5-over for the tournament and is in danger of missing the cut.

In the other featured morning group, Rory McIlroy could be joining Rahm in departing Bethpage State Park after Friday. McIlroy began the day double bogey-bogey-double bogey and was at 7-over par for the championship with 11 holes to play.

Phil Mickelson and Jason Day are in McIlroy’s group. Mickelson, who shot 69 Friday, carded an early double bogey. Day bogeyed three holes in a row.

Danny Lee’s struggles

Lee. who was in the first group to begin the second round at the 10th hole, was not going well at the start, with back-to-back bogeys at 11 and 12 and consecutive double bogeys at 15 and 16.

However, after dropping to even-par after his 6-over par first nine, Lee showed signs of life with birdies at the first and third holes to move back into a tie for fourth.

Shoutout to the club pros

The PGA of America leaves room for 20 of its club professionals to compete in the championship and two of them matched par on Thursday, Ryan Vermeer of Omaha, Neb., and Jason Caron of Greenlawn, N.Y.

Vermeer, who was in the first group to tee off at No. 1 on Friday, put himself in contention to make the cut by shooting even par on the front nine. Caron begins his round in the afternoon.