2015 Honda Classic: Tee times, pairings for Friday’s 2nd round at PGA National

The unofficial Masters prep season started this week with the beginning of the Florida swing. And the Honda Classic was a major championship test on Thursday, with high winds sending a large majority of the field over par. There were double and triple bogeys all over the scoreboard, including from the top players in the world that make up this loaded field. The wind is not supposed to be as bad on Friday, so some of the cream should have a chance to rise. Here are some of the stories and marquee tee times to watch for the second round.

The featured group for the afternoon broadcast will be the trio of Phil Mickelson, Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia. Mickelson had missed two cuts in his first three starts this year, and it looked like Thursday was going to be more of the substandard form from Phil. But he scratched out a 1-over round of 71, which was pretty good considering the windy conditions. He’s T34 heading to Friday’s round and the putting, which he called “pathetic” after missing the cut at Torrey Pines, looked solid from moderate distances.

While Tiger takes his leave to figure out if he has tournament-acceptable game anymore, Phil tries to find a semblance of form and rebound from the worst season of his career. Mickelson is usually positive and he embraced the tougher conditions, saying he loved the test after the round. This is not a tournament he’s played until the last couple years, but he’s always done well early in the season before the Masters. These next two weeks at the Honda and Doral will be a nice marker to see if he’s over all the inconsistency from last year.

Much like Phil, Sergio spent his first round in grind mode just trying to avoid the complete disaster of a scorecard. It didn’t look good early -- he started with a bogey and then carded a triple on his third hole of the day. At the 18th, he shot one right into the water, but hit a fully submerged ball out of the pond and made a par. It was an adventure that the PGA Tour captured in a quick 6-second Vine.

The par save from the pond was a bit of a turning point for Sergio, who avoided an outward 40 with the par and then posted an inward 33 to get back in the game. He’s just 2-over and T61, which is a manageable spot given his start.

Kaymer, the third player in the group, had the best round on Thursday and is T6 at 2-under. The biggest challenge of Kaymer’s day was racing Garcia and trying to find a toilet during the middle of his round.

In addition to the Mickelson-Garcia-Kaymer group, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Graeme McDowell, Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood should be some of the big names on the afternoon side of the draw getting love from the Golf Channel cameras.

The headline group of the entire tournament was the tasty combination of Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka. McIlroy is largely considered the best driver of the golf ball in the world, combining accuracy with absurd length to overwhelm courses. But he may be the shortest hitter in his group, as Koepka and DJ are well-known bombers with driving distance stats favorable even to Rory’s numbers. At one point on Thursday, a frustrated Johnson unleashed a 370-yard bomb that had everyone in awe.

But despite all that talent and power, all three players in the marquee group looked shaky-to-awful throughout the first round. Johnson is completely out of it and will be packing up early on Friday afternoon following his 7-over 77 start. Koepka was one worse and is 8-over. Combined, the group was 20-over as they came to the 18th tee.

McIlroy was the lone player to redeem some of his ugly play to get in the clubhouse with a reasonable 3-over 73 round. He needed a birdie-birdie finish just to get there. He’s T78 and will need a low round to push his way onto the right side of the cutline at his 2015 PGA Tour debut.

The conditions were brutal for everyone but these big hitters were especially affected by the Palm Beach winds. They will be out in the morning wave on Friday and should be done with their round well before the broadcast goes live on Golf Channel. In general, the morning conditions are usually favorable for scoring on the PGA Tour and McIlroy seemed encouraged about getting out in the AM with the forecast calling for lighter winds. So perhaps Rory can post an early number and get back in it at the midpoint. They tee off at 7:45 a.m. ET on No. 10.

Golf Channel will have the broadcast again on Friday afternoon, going live from 2-6 p.m. ET. They should also have an hour pregame show with live look-ins at PGA National. If you want to ignore work and watch McIlroy and friends in the morning, then PGATour.com should have its entire round up on its featured groups stream (all media options can be found here).

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

UPDATE: Rain hammered the Palm Beach area on Friday morning, causing standing water in most of the fairways. The round was already 90 minutes old when the horn sounded at 8:23 a.m. local time and the Tour had sent them out playing the ball down without “lift, clean, and place.”

So the grounds crew will need some time to get the course drained and playable with the ball down. It should be an afternoon full of mud balls and more high scores. Play is tentatively scheduled to resume around 10:30 a.m. ET and it’s unlikely the entire field gets their second round done before darkness in South Florida.