IRVING, Texas -- Texan Jimmy Walker and first-round leader Steven Bowditch joined Jon Curran at 9 under Friday atop the soggy AT&T Byron Nelson.
Hometown favorite Jordan Spieth surged into contention with a 5-under 64 and is three shots back.
Walker, who won the Texas Open not far from home in San Antonio in March, finished a 66 at the rain-altered TPC Four Seasons with a par at 18 just before played was halted by darkness. There were 33 players on the course after the start was delayed three hours.
Par was 69 because No. 14 was shortened to a 105-yard par 3 after heavy overnight rain made the fairway unplayable.
Bowditch shot 68 with seven birdies and six bogeys. Curran matched the day's low round at 63.
Spieth and every other early finisher within three shots of Curran turned in a birdie 2, and Gary Woodland had a hole-in-one when it was still possible that the easy wedge over a pond would play as a par 4. Tour officials later made the switch.
Curran shot 63. Cameron Percy was a shot back after an eagle at the par-5 seventh for a 64.
Defending champion Brendon Todd shot 68 and was 1 over for the tournament, unlikely to make the cut.
The fairway at the normally 406-yard 14th was deemed unplayable in the landing area after 5 inches of rain fell starting about midnight, pushing the total to about 17 inches in less than three weeks at the Four Seasons course. Texas officials have declared May the wettest month in the state's history.
The temporary tee box was on the fairway side of a pond that wraps around the left side of the green. Tour officials believe it was the first such alteration since the 2005 WGC-Match Play Championship, when flooding at La Costa in Carlsbad, California, temporarily turned a 467-yard par 4 into a 162-yard par 3.
Nick Watney had a bogey-free 65 and was in a group at 7 under that included 48-year-old Jerry Kelly, who also shot 29 while starting on the back nine. Yes, he had a 2 on 14.
"I would have counted those as 1-under par 4," said Kelly, who had the last of his three tour wins in 2009. "That's all I got to say."
Ken Duke (Arkadelphia, Henderson State) had a 1-under 68 (135). Bryce Molder (Conway) shot a 2-under 67 (136). David Lingmerth (Arkansas Razorbacks) had a 2-under 67 (139).
LPGA
Pressel ahead by 1
GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Morgan Pressel closed with a birdie and an eagle for a 5-under 66 and a one-stroke lead Friday after the first round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
The 27-year-old Pressel, seeking her first LPGA Tour win since 2008, held the advantage over Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, Alena Sharp of Canada, rookie Min Lee of Taiwan and American Ryann O'Toole on the Bay Course at Stockton Seaview, where the weather was near-perfect.
Brooke Henderson, the 17-year-old Canadian playing on a sponsor exemption, was among nine players at 68. The group included Women's British Open champion Mo Martin, Catriona Matthew and Gerina Piller.
Third-ranked Stacy Lewis (Arkansas Razorbacks), the tournament winner in 2012 and 2014, chipped in for eagle at No. 9, her last hole, and finished with a 72.
Michelle Wie had a 74. The U.S. Women's Open champion is playing after withdrawing from the Kingsmill Championship two weeks ago because of a left hip injury. She went through a series of evaluations and MRIs and was diagnosed with bursitis.
EUROPEAN PGA
McIlroy exits early
NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland -- Early exits are becoming a habit for Rory McIlroy, especially in his home country.
The 26-year-old Northern Ireland native failed to make the Irish Open cut for the third consecutive year Friday, shooting an even-par 71 that failed to make up for an 80 in the opening round. It is the second consecutive week the world's top-ranked golfer failed to make the weekend, having exited early at the PGA Championship at Wentworth.
England's Tyrrell Hatton showed the field at Royal County Down that the seaside links course, bedeviled with unseasonably frigid gales and pelting showers, could be tamed.
The 23-year-old Hatton, ranked 142nd in the world, set a new course record of 66 to join a five-way tie for the lead at 3-under 139. His score tied a mark from 1939, but club and European Tour officials said it was considered a new record because the course has greatly changed over the past 76 years.
Only 15 of the 156-player field managed to beat par Friday as the changing weather drove the cutoff score to 5 over.
WEB.COM
Thompson leads Rex
Kyle Thompson shot a 3-under 68 on Friday for a two-round total of 11-under 131, placing him in the lead of the Rex Hospital Open at Raleigh, N.C.
Thompson was one shot ahead of Ricky Werenski (65), Darron Stiles (66), Steve Allan (63) and Drew Scott (65).
Nine players were tied a 9-under 133, including first-round leader Seamus Power (72). Eight more players are at 8 under for a total of 22 players within three strokes of the lead going into the weekend.
Tag Ridings (Arkansas Razorbacks) had a 2-under 69 (135). Sebastian Cappelen (Razorbacks) had a 4-under 67 (138). Zack Fischer (Little Rock) shot a 1-under 70 (139). Andrew Landry (Razorbacks) failed to make the cut.
Sports on 05/30/2015