McIlroy has putting meltdown as Johnson takes Pebble Beach lead

Rory McIlroy four-putted from six feet while Dustin Johnson avoided anysimilar mishaps to move into the halfway lead at the Pebble Beach Pro-Amin California on Friday. Johnson birdied his first three holes to set astrong base for a seven-under-par 64 second round on the MontereyPeninsula course, one of three used for the event.Fellow American Beau Hossler, a PGA Tour rookie, had a bogey-free 67 atSpyglass Hill, joining Johnson at 12-under, though Johnson has a lowertotal, 131 against Hossler’s 132. Monterey Peninsula is a par-71, whileSpyglass and the host Pebble Beach courses are par-72 layouts.Fellow Americans Troy Merritt and Julian Suri are at 10-under, while JonRahm, Phil Mickelson and Australia’s Jason Day are among a formidablegroup at nine-under. McIlroy, meanwhile, has some work ahead to make the54-hole cut after a 74 at Monterey that included a staggeringdouble-bogey at the par-four fifth.After almost driving the green, the Northern Irishman used his putterfrom the fringe and stroked the ball to within six feet of the cup, fromwhere he took four putts and probably ended his hopes in the tournamentin a matter of seconds.He is at one-under heading to his third round at Pebble. Johnson, whowon the opening event of the year at Kapalua in Hawaii on a course thatsuited his long-hitting game, said his form is close to where it was atthis stage last year, when he was about to embark on a stretch of threesuccessive victories. “I don’t know if it’s quite as good as it wasduring that stretch,” he said. “That was probably some of the best golfI’ve played in my career, but parts of the game are just as good. Iwould say that I’m driving it well, but I’m probably not quite as goodas I was when on those three wins, but everything else feels like it’sreally good.”World number two Rahm, playing for the fourth consecutive week, used afour-iron approach shot in the par-five sixth to set up a two-puttbirdie and get his round at Pebble Beach going. “Hasn’t been a greatyear on par-fives,” said Rahm. “I have had a lot of frustration but itall went away when I hit those two shots into six. I’m going to take acouple of weeks.