The Barclays tee times, pairings for Friday’s second round at Ridgewood

A good thing about the FedEx Cup is that the PGA Tour has no pretension about making the conditions and courses as tough as possible to protect par just because it’s now the postseason. Ridgewood Country Club, hosting The Barclays this week, may have the toughest and deepest rough of the season but it’s still yielding rounds in the mid-60s and rewarding the best players at their best. The birdie chances out there also allow players on the cut line to make a move and post a number to play their way on through the playoffs.

Thursday’s opening round provided a clustered group at the top of the leaderboard and it looked like we might have 9-way tie at the top for the group shooting 5-under 66. But then Bo Van Pelt chipped in for eagle on the 17th hole and shot past that group to settle in solo first with a round of 65. BVP has had an underwhelming year and started the week needing to make a move from 104th in the standings to the other side of the century mark in order to make it to the second leg in Boston. He’s in much better shape to do that now, and would rocket towards the top of the standings if he continues to hang around inside the top five. He’ll be out early in the morning wave with Aaron Baddeley and Ricky Barnes, going off No. 10 at 8:48 a.m. ET.

The tee sheet for the first two rounds this week is one of the more uneven draws I’ve seen all year. The Tour usually does a good job of splitting up the biggest names and bigger draws between the AM and PM waves, but one half this week clearly features the heavyweights. On Thursday, they played in the morning and finished up well before the TV broadcast went live. But on Friday, they’ll play their second rounds live in front of the camera. The afternoon wave features the top 3 in the FedEx Cup standings, Rory McIlroy, Jimmy Walker, and Bubba Watson. There’s also Adam Scott, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, and Phil Mickelson. It’s an absolutely loaded group that leaves little for the other half of the tee sheet.

McIlroy will need to make a move if he wants to play the weekend at Ridgewood. He’s currently tied for 102nd place after his opening round 3-over 74. Rory admitted he hadn’t practiced much over the past week, and that the regression was inevitable. It sounds like he was off to “catch up on practice” after his Thursday morning round. The second round should be more in line with everything we’ve seen from him over the past month, but it may not be enough if the rounds in the mid-60s continue to roll in from all over the tee sheet.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round: