PGA Championship 2015 results: Australians take over a loaded leaderboard

It took two days but the PGA Championship is now through 36 holes and there’s a distinct Australian theme to the top of the leaderboard. Unlike the first round at Whistling Straits, the afternoon wave on Friday was at no scoring disadvantage with the wind staying calm for the late tee times. Jason Day and Matt Jones watched Jordan Spieth and others make their move in the morning wave, then came out and pushed the leading number even higher.

It’s no surprise to see Day back on top of a major championship leaderboard. He’s too talented and this course suits his game too well. After opening the week with a 4-under 68, he quickly took the top spot on the board with three birdies in his first six holes. This move all occurred while his playing partner and 18-hole leader Dustin Johnson stalled out and started going the wrong way.

When the horn blew at 5:28 p.m. local on Friday night, Day was cruising and had complete control of his game. It was a tough break and given his form, he was likely to add to his lead. The horn blared just a beat or two after a swing that stuck another approach shot close at the 15th hole. That would be it for Day, who had no qualms with the obvious decision to shut things down for the night as storms hammered the course.

Day returned on Saturday morning and was the first to get to double-digit under-par with this smooth birdie putt par-5 16th.

Day’s length is an obvious advantage on the par-5s and he made birdies on all four of them in his second round. His round, however, would stall out from there and he’d drop a shot at the extremely difficult 18th hole to settle at 9-under for the championship. He’ll play in the final tee time of the third round with Jones later Saturday afternoon.

Jones’ jump to the top of the board is a more of a surprise than Day’s typical residency there. He had a T3 result at the lower-tier St. Jude Classic, but that’s been his only real positive result of the summer. He missed the cut in two of his last three events and was a middling T30 at The Open. His second round, however, was flawless and he sits on the 36-hole lead at 11-under. There was not a single bogey on the card, and he put some cushion between himself and Day with two more birdies on Saturday morning. A drained bomb at the eighth hole, his 17th of the round, pushed the margin to 11-under.

Following the Aussie duo is Justin Rose, whose worst result in his last three starts was a T6 at The Open. He’s a former major winner in top form and with world-class talent. Rose had just one hole left to finish on Saturday morning and he played the difficult 18th without dropping a shot and to get into the house at 8-under. He’ll be paired with David Lingmerth, the Swede who set the early pace in the first half of the draw on Friday.

The big names missing the cut were Tiger Woods, last month’s Open winner Zach Johnson and Adam Scott. Woods missed his third straight cut at a major championship, which is the same number of cuts he missed from 1997 to 2013 (more details on his round and lost summer at the majors here).

It’s a day late but here are your 36-hole results. The good news is the weather is supposed to clear up and we should be through 54 holes by Saturday night.