Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, runs to his ball on the fifth hole during the second round of the PGA Championship golf tournament Friday, Aug. 14, 2015, at Whistling Straits in Haven, Wis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) (The Associated Press)
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. – Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took advantage of his day off from training camp to play golf fan.
The state's best-known athlete spent some time following the Rory McIlory-Jordan Spieth-Zach Johnson group Friday, but mostly took in the view of the PGA Championship from a hospitality tent.
"I only noticed him on the last couple of holes," the top-ranked McIlroy said. "Obviously, this is a big area (for football) with Green Bay. It was cool to see him out here."
Even though Rodgers is one of Spieth's favorite athletes, the world's second-ranked golfer didn't find out the Green Bay QB was a fan until afterward.
"But I think it's really cool that ... that he would come down to watch considering they (the Packers) had a game last night," Spieth said.
Rodgers threw 19 passes in Green Bay's preseason win at New England on Thursday.
"I don't really get star struck," Spieth added. "But it would be cool to meet him."
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SPEAKING OF FOOTBALL: Billy Horschel is at even par and has plenty on his plate, especially if he plans to contend on the weekend.
But he's also got the fantasy football season to start preparing for.
He plays in a league run by fellow golfer Chris DiMarco "and I got to see when they're having the draft and all that.
"I'm keeping an eye on things, and I haven't done a ton of research," Horschel said. "But next week my wife and my little girl are going home, so I'll have early in the week to research and be prepared to draft well."
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SHOULDN'T HAVE SAID THAT: Justin Rose opened his mouth too soon. With storm clouds gathering, he finished the 17th hole and figured his group would make it.
"I opened my big mouth to the boys playing with us," Rose said. "I said, 'The end is in sight.' And 30 seconds later, they blew the horn. So my name is mud all over here."
That means Rose will have to get up at 5 a.m. to get ready to complete one hole. Play resumes at 7 a.m. And because he's at 8-under par, he likely won't have to start the third round until the early afternoon. That's a lot of time to kill.
"Do I go back to sleep? Go chill? So that's going to be interesting to deal with that tomorrow," Rose said. "But I'm in good position."
Oddly enough, it was a situation like this that Rose said was important in his 2013 U.S. Open victory at Merion. Rain kept the second round from being completed on Friday, and Rose was in the last group that finished without having to return Saturday morning.
In near darkness, he chose to finish his round so that he could sleep in and have what he described as the "rhythm of the week."
He won't have that at Whistling Straits.
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WHO'S AFRAID OF SOME RAIN?: Matt Jones is tied for the lead and was rolling along on his 13th hole of the day when a rainstorm powered by 48-mph gusts forced supension of play.
He'll have a tough starting spot when the second round resumes Saturday morning.
"Tough hole to start back out tomorrow, second shot out of the bunker," Jones said, "but there's a few more birdie holes, so I'm happy with where I am."
Especially given the scene on the golf course when play was called.
"It got really, really dark out there. It was pretty eerie," he said. "It was kind of hard to see out there."
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DIVOTS: Adam Scott's streak of making the cut at 17 consecutive majors — the longest among current players — ended this week at Whistling Straits, where the Aussie was sent packing at 7 over ... Jamie Donaldson withdrew after playing 15 holes in the second round with a recurring back injury ... With the cut projected at 2 over, a trio of players — Ryan Palmer, Carl Pettersson and Morgan Hoffman — will all have seven holes or less to make a birdie and book a spot in the field for the weekend.
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