Harrington in mix at Travelers as McIlroy squeezes into weekend

Jordan Spieth remains out in front at the halfway stage of the Travelers Championship but Rory McIlroy tumbled down the leaderboard after a three-over 73 at TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.

And Pádraig Harrington, playing in his first tourmanent since returning from an elbow injury, carded a steady round of 69 – one under par – to sit at five under, just three off the lead.

Two birdes and a bogey made up the three-time major winner’s round on a tougher day in Cromwell where the winds were up.

With a two-tee start in the third round due to forecasted bad weather, Harrington will go off the first tee at 5.25pm Irish time (12.25pm local time) alongside Smylie Kaufman and Jim Furyk while McIlroy will start on the 10th tee 10 minutes later with KJ Choi and Robert Streb.

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Overnight leader Spieth followed up his opening-day 63 with a less impressive 69, thanks in part to a double bogey on the 13th hole, yet he sits one stroke ahead of Troy Merritt and Patrick Reed.

World number three McIlroy, who missed the cut at the US Open last week, found four bogeys over the back nine to fall into a share of 69th place, just one shot above the projected cut line.

McIlroy managed to make par at one point after hitting a tee shot into a water hazard, and he later told Golf Channel: “I would have taken a par after the tee shot. Could have made birdie, but didn’t.”

Spieth recovered from his early double bogey with three birdies across his next eight holes and afterwards confessed it was his putting that saved his round.

After taking only 29 putts to finish on Friday, the Texan said: “I wouldn’t say I played my B-game. I think I’ve been up there playing pretty solid golf.

“It’s just, hitting more greens. The ones I missed, I didn’t really need to miss. I was trying to do too much. That’s kind of what gets me in trouble on a course like this.”

Johnson Wagner and Brett Stegmaier were a stroke behind Spieth after day one but both Americans followed 64s with 72s to slip out of strong positions.

That left Merritt and Reed as the closest title challengers on seven under while Patrick Rodgers was one of the day’s biggest movers, his five-under 65 boosting him to within three strokes of the lead.

Harrington is among those tied for eighth with Rodgers while Paul Casey carded another 68 to retain an outside chance of climbing the ladder in Cromwell.

Anirban Lahiri, meanwhile, revealed how a recent stint at a meditation centre helped him shoot 63 to fly 108 places up the leaderboard.

The Indian said: “You go to the centre for 10 days, you switch your phones off. There is no TV, you’re not allowed to read.

“You’re meditating. You’re not allowed to talk. So there is like complete silence for nine and a half days or so, and you’re meditating for 10 to 12 hours a day.

“I find it very healing for me, and a lot of people who have gone there benefited from it. It’s not something I do specifically for my golf, but it’s something that’s helped me.”

USPGA Tour Travelers Championship, TPC River Highlands, Cromwell, Connecticut, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 70):

(a) denotes amateurs

132 Jordan Spieth 63 69

133 Troy Merritt 65 68, Patrick Reed 67 66

134 Chase null Seiffert 68 66, Wesley Bryan 67 67, Boo Weekley 66 68, Daniel Summerhays 66 68

135 Beau Hossler 66 69, Smylie Kaufman 68 67, Graham DeLaet (Can) 65 70, Chez Reavie 69 66, Danny Lee (Nzl) 68 67, Daniel Berger 68 67, Jim Furyk 67 68, Patrick Rodgers 70 65, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 66 69

136 Charley Hoffman 69 67, Xander Schauffele 66 70, Brian Harman 66 70, Brett Stegmaier 64 72, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 66 70, Brendan Steele 68 68, Paul Casey (Eng) 68 68, Ryan Brehm 68 68, Johnson Wagner 64 72, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 73 63

137 Kyle Stanley 70 67, Hudson Swafford 66 71, Vaughn Taylor 68 69, David Hearn (Can) 67 70, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 69 68, David Lingmerth (Swe) 67 70, Keegan Bradley 67 70, Tony Finau 70 67, Will MacKenzie 69 68, Kevin Na 66 71, Brad Fritsch (Can) 70 67, Marc Leishman (Aus) 69 68, Morgan Hoffmann 67 70, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 67 70, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 67 70, Brandt Snedeker 70 67

138 Bud Cauley 70 68, Nick Watney 69 69, Jason Kokrak 71 67, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 65, Matt Every 66 72, William McGirt 68 70, Tom Hoge 66 72, Rick Lamb 69 69, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 72 66, Webb Simpson 70 68, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 71 67, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 70 68

139 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 69, Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 67 72, Mark Hubbard 66 73, Steve Wheatcroft 67 72, Kevin Streelman 69 70, Alex Cejka (Den) 69 70, Hunter Mahan 68 71, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 70, Julian Etulain (Arg) 71 68, J.J. Henry 68 71, Rod Pampling (Aus) 67 72, Bryson DeChambeau 67 72, Michael Kim 67 72, Russell Knox (Sco) 69 70

140 Spencer Levin 68 72, Ryan Palmer 69 71, Adam Hadwin (Can) 70 70, Robert Streb 67 73, Jamie Lovemark 72 68, Grayson Murray 69 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 67 73, Cameron Percy (Aus) 67 73, Bryce Molder 70 70, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 69 71, Kevin Tway 73 67, Peter Malnati 72 68, Sung Kang (Kor) 70 70, Scott Piercy 66 74, Joel Dahmen 69 71, Ricky Barnes 70 70, Patton Kizzire 73 67

The following players missed the cut:

141 Andres Gonzales 70 71, Trey Mullinax 72 69, Robert Garrigus 69 72, Kelly Kraft 70 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 73 68, Mark Anderson 72 69

142 Jason Day (Aus) 72 70, Seung-Yul Noh (Kor) 69 73, Harold Varner III 70 72, Tag Ridings 68 74, Brandon Hagy 70 72, John Peterson 68 74, Bubba Watson 75 67, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 69 73, Harris English 67 75, Billy Hurley III 69 73, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 70, Chad Collins 71 71, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 70, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 69 73, Jim Herman 72 70

143 Scott Stallings 69 74, Lucas Glover 72 71, Zack Sucher 74 69, Cody Gribble 74 69, Seamus Power (Irl) 72 71, Chad Campbell 70 73, Whee Kim (Kor) 70 73, Brett Coletta (Aus) 74 69, Miguel Angel Carballo (Arg) 72 71, Kyle Reifers 69 74, Ken Duke 69 74, Troy Kelly 73 70, John Huh 71 72

144 JT Poston 75 69, Zach Johnson 75 69, Brian Gay 72 72, Brian Campbell 71 73, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 71 73

145 Justin Thomas 73 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 74 71, Derek Fathauer 71 74, Martin Flores 73 72, Ryan Armour 71 74, Bobby Wyatt 69 76

146 Zach Zaback 76 70, Dominic Bozzelli 70 76, Nick Taylor (Can) 71 75

147 Ben Crane 72 75, Steven Alker (Nzl) 73 74, Michael Thompson 75 72, Shawn Stefani 73 74, Jonathan Randolph 69 78

148 Richy Werenski 71 77, Ryan Blaum 76 72, Neil Johnson 78 70, Nicholas Lindheim 75 73

149 Brian Stuard 71 78, Ryan Ruffels (Aus) 71 78, Zac Blair 73 76

150 Jason Bohn 73 77, Andrew Loupe 81 69

151 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 71 80, Mark Wilson 74 77

152 Wyndham Clark 78 74, Bobby Gates 80 72

156 Billy Downes 76 80

159 Brett Drewitt (Aus) 75 84