Theegala sets Arizona pace, Power & McDowell miss cut

After finishing up his first round on a sour note early Friday morning, PGA Tour rookie Sahith Theegala made up for it with a seven-under-par 64 to jump out to a two-shot lead after two rounds of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Theegala stood at seven-under through 16 holes on Thursday when play was suspended due to darkness. He returned to TPC Scottsdale, Arizona on Friday and closed his promising first round with back-to-back bogeys.

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However, his second round of eight birdies and just one bogey propelled him to 12-under, two strokes ahead of Brooks Koepka and Xander Schauffele. Patrick Cantlay is alone in fourth at nine-under.

There was frustration for the two Irishmen in the field.

Seamus Power's 70 hoisted him up to a tie for 68th on one-under, a shot better than Graeme McDowell who followed up his opening three-under 68 with a three-over 74 that left him on level par. That was not enough for either of them to make the -2 cut.

Notables who missed the cut included Harold Varner III [two-over], who won the Saudi International last week, and Norway's Viktor Hovland [2 over], who has risen to No 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

"I wasn't too upset about the way [the day] started," Theegala said. "I had a 15-footer to start the day, so I was like, 'OK, I just put a good roll on it and see what happens'. I put a good roll, just missed.

"And the next tee shot I put it under the lip of the fairway bunker and I'm like, 'OK, I can't do much about that, right?' And I knew if I kept putting the ball in the fairway I'm going to have scoring opportunities, so it was nice to reset for the 30 or 40 minutes that I had in between the rounds there."

Theegala, a three-time All-American at Pepperdine University, is