Shell Houston Open round two: Appleby remains the man to beat

Layers must be rubbing their hands with glee. It’s not often you have six players tied for the lead after two rounds - not since late 2005 in fact. And there’s a host of others well within firing range. Yet again Friday turns into bunching-up day, only this time we’re not even a single shot further forward.

Bob Estes looked to have blown it when he struggled to post an early doors one under. But others who overtook him through the day were shot down in flames by the tricky conditions. Adam Scott was on the verge of running away with it when he was ambushed by four bogeys down the back nine. Vaughn Taylor suffered a cruel quadruple bogey on his 14th. So in the end, for no other reason than he was first in the clubhouse, Estes sits on top of as unlikely a bunch of leaders as you can imagine.

The morning/afternoon split failed to happen Friday. The early crew shot roughly the same overall score as they did in Thursday afternoon’s tough conditions, while those out after lunch did slightly better (72.4 to 73.2). A combination of blustery wind and awkward pin positions near the edges of the greens evened things up enough to give bombers like Bubba Watson a serious look-in.

Expect significant changes Saturday, with heavy storms predicted that could end up slowing down the greens and fairways and threatening big delays. As a result, they’re going off in threes from the first and tenth tees starting 7.20am.

Things are still so wide open even Taylor can count himself in with a chance, three strokes off the pace. But Stuart Appleby has yet to relinquish his grip on this course - he’s led in all six rounds played here - and is still the man to beat. I’m keeping an eye on Scott, but he is clearly not yet fully on top of his short game.