Last week’s winner, Tony Finau, picked up right where he left off on Thursday morning as he jumped out to an early lead at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He shot an 8-under 64 that would only be matched later by Taylor Pendrith. Those two players will take a two-shot edge into the second round on Friday, but once again the overall story was a heavy wave split.
The morning players fared 1.26 shots better than those that went off in the windier conditions on Thursday afternoon. All of the top seven players on the leaderboard went off early, though Charley Hoffman did his best to match them before ultimately settling for an afternoon best 5-under 67.
As we look toward Friday, I always tend to favor the morning, but there doesn’t look to be the same weather split for Round 2. I’ll be playing it mostly neutral as we get into the buys and fades for the second round in Detroit.