Jon Rahm used a strong back nine during Friday’s second round to take a narrow lead at the halfway point of LIV Golf Mexico City in Naucalpan, Mexico.

Rahm — who backdoored his way into a top-40 finish last week at the Masters by shooting 4 under in the final round to finish at 1 over — overcame a rocky front nine to shoot 4 under on the back nine, post 67 at Club de Golf Chapultepec and sit at 10-under-par 132.

The Spaniard was in second place after the opening round at 6 under. He’s now one stroke clear of Matthew Wolff, Tom McKibbin of Northern Ireland and Harold Varner III, who are all tied at 9 under.

“I was even par on that 9th tee, and I thought, ‘Well, if I hit a good tee shot on 9, I’m going to give myself a birdie chance,'” Rahm said after the round. “If I keep hitting good drives like I’ve been doing so far, I was going to give myself really good chances at 10, 11 and 12, so I think I told (caddie) Adam (Hayes), ‘If we can get one or two before we get to the par-5s, I think we’re in a good spot,’ and kind of took it that way.”

Rahm, who started on the first tee at the shotgun-start event, opened with a bogey, which set the tone for an even-par front nine with three birdies and three bogeys. That included a ball into the water at No. 8, which led to a second consecutive bogey.

He changed the tune by starting his back nine with a birdie on the par-4 10th hole, kicking off a bogey-free final half of his round. Rahm racked up four birdies to put himself in pole position as he seeks his second 2026 win and sixth straight top-five finish to begin the season.

Wolff, McKibbin and Luis Masaveu of Spain (who is in fifth place at 8 under) each shot 6-under 65 to shoot up the leaderboard.

Wolff navigated a number of tough situations with par saves to come away with a bogey-free round.

“I was a bit all over the place, to be honest. I told my caddie after I finished up, I said, ‘I would have never guessed that that round would be bogey-free.’ I feel really good with the putter, so I think that helped a lot,” Wolff said. “… Overall, obviously I’m really happy, but definitely would like to tighten the ball-striking up a little bit. But it’s day by day. Hopefully I can leave that bad ball-striking behind and hit it good the next few days.”

Australia’s Marc Leishman had the low round of the day, posting a 7-under 64 to move past his 3-over opening round to move into a tie for 11th at 4 under. He eagled Nos. 7 and 12, finishing 5 under at the three par-5 holes during his Friday round.

First-round leader Victor Perez of France followed up his career-best 9-under 62 by shooting 2 over on Friday. He’s tied for sixth at 7 under along with Canada’s Richard T. Lee and England’s Tyrrell Hatton.

Bryson DeChambeau, aiming to become the first player in LIV Golf history to win three straight individual events, posted his second straight even-par 71 and is in a tie for 31st.

–Field Level Media

Scott Hend has won everywhere from Asia to Canada to his native Australia in his long, workmanlike golf career. Now he is in position to contend for his first major championship.

Hend posted a 7-under-par 65 on Friday, the lowest round through two days of the Senior PGA Championship, to share the 36-hole lead with Brian Gay at Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla.

Hend was 2 under for his day when he made the turn, but climbed the leaderboard quickly when he got birdies to fall at Nos. 11, 12 and 13. Hend added back-to-back birdies at Nos. 16-17 to shoot 5-under 31 coming in.

He and Gay sit at 10-under 134 at Concession — the new host of the major through 2028 – though both believed they could have been even better.

“I was disappointed in yesterday’s two double bogeys on the back nine, so I wanted to play that nine a bit smarter and a bit better today,” Gay said. “So I didn’t short-side myself as much as what I did yesterday, and it seemed to work out quite well.”

Hend has traveled Asia, collecting 10 wins on the Asian Tour from 2008-19. He has won three times since joining the European Senior Tour. He knows that the leaderboard is packed with challengers who have experience under the brightest lights.

“I haven’t got any majors in my back pockets, so the guys who have majors should be the ones that are favorites,” Hend said.

That includes Stewart Cink and South Africa’s Retief Goosen, who share third place at 8 under par with Ben Crane. Cink shot a 67 Friday while Crane and Goosen posted 69s.

Cink made an impressive eagle at the par-5 17th on a long, uphill putt. That pushed him to 9 under, but he bogeyed his final hole.

“Two bogeys today. You know, obviously you’d like to clean those up,” said Cink, who has won six times since joining the PGA Tour Champions and twice this year but is searching for his first senior major.

“But you know, all in all it was pretty good golf, and I would take days like today pretty much every day for the rest of my career and be happy, because there’s going to be some days that yield some low scores on days like this, and there’s not going to be too many over-par rounds.”

As for Gay, he is in the same bucket as Hend, seeking his first career major of any kind. An eagle at the par-5 seventh was counteracted by his double-bogey 7 at the 17th.

“Another pretty good day. A little volatile. Pretty similar to yesterday, except I butchered a couple of par-5s. Two of them with one bad tee ball, two good tee balls, but other than that, I putted well again.”

Argentina’s Angel Cabrera, the defending champion, went 9 over through 36 holes and missed the cut by seven strokes.

–Field Level Media

Striker Tai Baribo’s return to Philadelphia may be delayed beyond D.C. United’s scheduled visit to the Union on Saturday night.

The Israeli international led Philadelphia with 16 MLS goals in 2025. After joining D.C. (2-4-1, 7 points) from Philadelphia (1-6-0, 3 points) in a $4 million cash trade during the offseason, Baribo owns three of the four league goals scored by D.C. this season.

That includes the only tally in D.C.’s 1-0 home win against the Union to open the season.

But a thigh injury has kept Baribo out of the Black-and-Red’s last two matches — a 1-0 league loss last weekend at the New England Revolution and a defeat on penalties to One Knoxville following a 3-3 draw in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 on Wednesday night.

D.C. manager Rene Weiler said Baribo is questionable for Saturday.

“He trained for himself, so we have to check it tomorrow,” Weiler said Thursday. “I hope he will be with the team. And it would push the team, of course. I’m not sure if he (will be) ready for the game on Saturday, but we will check it out (Friday).”

With Baribo and a few other regulars who departed in the offseason, Philadelphia earned the 2025 Supporters’ Shield awarded to the best regular-season finisher.

Without him, the Union have endured a miserable start to 2026. They finally earned their first league win last Saturday with a 2-1 decision over a Montreal side that also only has one MLS victory on the year.

Philadelphia awaits its first multi-goal scorer of the season after Japhet Sery Larsen and Jesus Bueno each contributed their first goals to lead its second-half rally in Canada.

Meanwhile, manager Bradley Carnell admitted the uncertainty over arguably D.C.’s most important player have made preparations a bit more difficult.

“We always want to face the best opponents, and a D.C. United with Tai Baribo is certainly a force to be reckoned with,” Carnell said Thursday. “We are preparing and planning accordingly, but we cannot control what we cannot control. Whether he’s in the building, traveling or not, that’s a narrative we cannot drive and control, so we’re only focused on us and the team that we think will play.”

–Field Level Media