GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Sedgefield Country Club isn't being quite as generous on this overcast Friday morning as the Donald Ross gem was during the first round of the Wyndham Championship.

That is, except for Lucas Glover. The former U.S. Open champion has climbed within three strokes of the lead after playing his first 14 holes in 7 under on Friday. Tommy Gainey is setting the pace at 10 under with five holes remaining.

Glover, who shot even par on Thursday, started on the back nine and made the turn in 31. He made a 16-footer on the second hole for his fifth birdie and has just rolled in an 11-footer for an eagle on the fifth hole.

Glover has three par 4s and one par 3 remaining. He trailed by three entering the final round of last year’s Wyndham Championship and went on to finish seventh.

Ever play in a charity scramble where you get a free throw of your golf ball? Well, that wasn’t exactly on the rules sheet for Monday’s Telus Skins Game in Alberta, Canada, but avid cricket player Paul Casey saw a 132-yard par-3 and could only think of one thing.

“I played a lot of cricket growing up and I am good at throwing balls … it just looked like the perfect yardage and I thought ‘why not,’” Casey told The Canadian Press.

Playing in a group with Jhonattan Vegas, Lucas Glover, Anthony Kim and Canadian Stephen Ames, Casey figured he’d make things interesting with the throw – which sailed over a pond and landed on the green, some 30 feet from the hole. He then hit a wedge which landed closer to the pin, but spun into the rough.

“I was a little disappointed I didn't get the wedge shot closer than my throw,” he said.

He had hoped to get his partners to bet him on whether he could throw the ball on the green – and his partners wisely declined. In the official action, Jhonattan Vegas was the big winner with $55,000 won on the first nine holes of competition.

The event raised $28,000 for charity on the first of two days of play, which concludes Tuesday.

By Zak Kozuchowski, PGATOUR.COM Lucas Glover, Anthony Kim and Rickie Fowler, the trio in this week’s Featured Group, entered the RBC Canadian Open with more momentum than any other players in the field. They each had high finishes in last week’s British Open, and continued to play well in Round 1, shooting matching 1-under 69s. Glover has continued his consistent play in Round 2 -- he’s even through 12 holes. Fowler has built on his first-round momentum with two birdies and a bogey, putting him two shots off the lead shared by Chad Campbell and Lee Janzen at 4 under. Kim, who finished the British Open tied for fifth with Fowler, began his round 3 over through his first two holes, and has since made four more bogeys. He’s at 5 over, one shot above the projected cut line.

Chad Campbell reached the clubhouse at 4 under and currently has sole possession of the lead at the RBC Canadian Open. With the afternoon wave getting under way at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, here are some things to keep an eye on today during the Golf Channel’s coverage of second round action. • Of the 17 players currently under par at Shaughnessy, 13 are playing this afternoon. • Ernie Els, who hasn’t posted a top 10 on TOUR this season, opened with a 2 under 68 yesterday. He will tee off with Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and Paul Casey at 3:40 p.m. • Our Featured Group of Rickie Fowler, Lucas Glover and Anthony Kim is set to go off the 10th tee at 3:50 p.m. ET. The trio posted identical 1-under 69s during Thursday’s opening round. • Matt McQuillan looks like he will be Canada’s best hope at winning its national championship for the first time since 1954. One of four Canadians inside the top 30 on the leaderboard, McQuillan is the only one in red numbers. He will try to back Thursday’s 68 at 5 p.m. ET when he tees off on No. 10. • 21-year-old Bud Cauley is 3-for-3 in cuts made since turning pro at the U.S. Open with finishes of T63, T24 and T4. He enters Round 2 at 1 under, just three shots off the lead. Playing with Cauley is David Hearn, who at even par, is the second-best Canadian on the leaderboard at the moment.

A significant number of players headed directly from the British Open to the RBC Canadian Open -- a 4,758-mile flight from Sandwich, U.K., to Vancouver, B.C. Among those are three players who finished in the top five last week at Royal St. George’s: Anthony Kim, Rickie Fowler and Chad Campbell.

Kim and Fowler are both on the course early in the opening round, while Campbell will tee off this afternoon.

Kim actually had a share of the lead at 2 under through five holes, but he double bogeyed the sixth hole to fall back to even par. He’s through seven holes so far.

Fowler, meanwhile, is coming off his best finish in a major and is 1 over through seven holes after a bogey on No. 6.

As for the top of the leaderboard, there’s a logjam of players that includes Lucas Glover at 2 under in the early going.

By Brian Wacker, PGATOUR.COM

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- Lucas Glover withdrew after nine holes Thursday morning at Aronimink, citing illness.

Since winning the Wells Fargo Championship in early May, Glover has struggled with two missed cuts and zero finishes inside the top 40. When he pulled out Thursday he was 5 over after six bogeys and one birdie through nine holes.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM

BETHESDA, Md. -- He started the week as a guy with visa problems.

He ended it as a bit of a rising star.

We're talking Englishman Robert Rock, who won the BMW Italian Open last Sunday, got a last-minute visa, flew to Newark, took a car service to Washington D.C. in the middle of the night and got here at 3:30 a.m. Thursday. A little more than 13 hours before his first-round tee time.

He stands to finish in the top 30 this week and people are already buzzing about his game and his tousled haircut.

If not for a third-round 76 . . . . well, it's golf and you have to count them all, but finishing at 1 over for the tournament with no practice round and only a rough idea of the course from watching an event on television . . . get where we're going?

Rock closed with a 68 and will head to Paris tonight for the Alstom Open de France in two weeks.

"I hit a lot of good shots.,'' said Rock, who closed with a 68 and will head to Paris tonight for the Saint Omer Open next week. "It was a pleasure playing with Lucas (Glover) today. That made it easier. I'm reasonably happy overall. I'm only going to finish 30th, which is not what you want when you enter a tournament, and I had better hopes after overcoming the hardest part, which was the first round.

"I'm disappointed because I thought I'd play better golf, but not knowing enough about the place just cost me."

And, he's as impressed with European Tour mate Rory McIlroy as everyone else.

"Yeah, I think Rory is showing what can be done around here,'' Rock said. "I'm not saying I played anywhere near that good, but I played some decent golf.  If I would have learned a bit more about it, I would have maybe gone a bit more under.''

After his whirlwind trip, Rock was ready to slow down a bit.

"My caddie and I are going to have a beer now and chill out before our flight tonight,'' he said. "I've got a week off to do very little. There won't be much practice done, I don't think. I'll take it easy for at least a few days and then start up again because I've got a big tournament coming up the week after."

Nike has provided a preview of what some of their players will be wearing this week for the U.S. Open. Here’s a look at the clothes Anthony Kim, Paul Casey, Lucas Glover and Stewart Cink are expected to wear for each of the four rounds (should each make the cut, of course) at Congressional.

 

DUBLIN, Ohio – Keegan Bradley, who beat Ryan Palmer on Sunday in a playoff to win the HP Byron Nelson Championship, is making a comeback on Friday.

Bradley, probably still trying to come back off the proverbial cloud nine, struggled in the first round, shooting a 76. But he’s just made the turn in 3 under and moved up 30 spots on the leaderboard into a tie for 65th.

Bradley is currently on the cutline at 1 over as the afternoon wave is under way in earnest. Among the players who won’t be around for the weekend are defending FedExCup champ Jim Furyk,  recent Wells Fargo Championship winner Lucas Glover and Fred Couples, who will captain the U.S. Presidents Cup team in November.

Furyk finished two rounds at 8 over while Glover and Couples are 7 over.

By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.COM

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Rory Sabbatini, who won here four years ago, is among the hottest players who teed off in the morning wave of Friday's second round at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial.

Sabbatini is 5 under through his first 12 holes, moving him to 7 under for the tournament. That's just one stroke off the lead shared by David Toms and Chez Reavie, who each shot 8-under 62 on Thursday. Toms is scheduled to tee off at 1:24 p.m. ET, and Reavie will tee off at 1:46 p.m. ET today.

Sabbatini had a stretch of four consecutive birdies starting at the ninth hole. At the 10th, he holed out from the fringe just off the green, while at the 12th, he rolled in a putt from just inside 21 feet.

Lucas Glover , winner of the Wells Fargo Championship two weeks ago, is also making a big move Friday. Like Sabbatini, he's also 5 under through his first 12 holes, leaving him at 4 under for the tournament.

One of Glover's playing partners, Paul Goydos, is also 5 under on his round, putting him at 5 under for the tournament.

Defending Colonial champ Zach Johnson is 2 under through 12 holes and 4 under for the tournament.

Big-hitting Australian Steven Bowditch is 4 under through his first eight holes, moving him to 7 under for the tournament. Bowditch ranks fifth on the PGA TOUR in driving distance.

Like Toms and Reavie, most of the players at the top of the first-round leaderboard do not tee off until this afternoon. They could be dealing with some dicey weather. There is a 70 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon.