Another spate of bad weather passed through Pittsford during Friday’s morning round. Greens and fairways were softened, so as to be more receptive to well-placed shots. Two more golfers (Jamie Donaldson and Angel Cabrera) withdrew due to injury and Woody Austin was penalized four strokes when he discovered a 15th club in his bag on No. 3.

And that was just the early show.

The late performance was highlighted by Jason Dufner’s course record-setting/Championship record-tying 63. The 2011 PGA runner-up to Keegan Bradley launched a wedge approach into the air on No. 2, landing it a good 30 feet above the hole. A bit of spin brought it properly back to the hole, where it moseyed in for an eagle-two. Dufner added five birdies, escaped with no bogies and took over the lead at 9-under from Adam Scott. Steve Stricker had this to say about his playing partner’s round:

“It was a fun round of golf to watch Jason play. He played flawlessly really all day. It started right away when he holed out on No. 2 for eagle. And from there he made a bunch of birdies, bunch of long putts, hit some in there real tight and made those putts.”

During the morning wave of golfers, a constant rain kept their focus on things beyond the golf, like dry grips, rain pants and 2 to 3 club differentials into greens. First-round co-leader Adam Scott considered running away with the tournament, then thought better of it. He was 3-under through seven holes (minus-8 overall) then cooled off with three bogies and two birdies during the remaining hole to reach the halfway pole at 7-under par. Scott was aware that the rains that besieged the morning golfers would only help those who played in the afternoon:

“It was stuff this morning. It was raining pretty hard on and off, and the course was playing tough. So it was nice to get off to a good start while the tough conditions were out there and I managed to hang on. The course is obviously softening up, and I’m sure some guys will take advantage of that.”

U.S. Open champion Justin Rose made a strong case for a second 2013 major title with a sparkling 66. After playing the back nine in 2-over, the Englishman came home in 29 slight strokes, marking six birdies and three bogies on his card during that stretch. Rose completed play after 36 holes one stroke back of Scott. Rose played half a round in wet conditions, then made his move when the clouds cleared and the sun came out.

“The rain did stop at the turn and [I] put on a fresh glove, and got the waterproofs off and kind of felt like you could start to play some golf instead of just trying to survive. Obviously I got hot and kept rolling with it. Adam played some great golf the last couple of days and showed me that this course is playable and you can make some birdies out there. And when I got hot, I stayed with it, which was nice.”

Last year’s U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson made the biggest morning move, scaling 67 places to reach the top 10 with a 64, one off the tournament’s single-round record. The Wake Forest alum made seven birdies against a lone bogey, on the challenging, 461-yard No. 7, to leap-frog an entire NFL team and reach contention heading into the weekend.

For about three hours, Simpson was co-owner of the Oak Hill East course single-round record. From the ninth tee on Thursday to the 18th green on Friday, Simpson stayed the course and picked up nine strokes:

“At 5-over through eight holes it was a pretty low moment for me. But I kind of had a pep talk with myself …just told myself, one hole at a time and tried to get a birdie here, a birdie there, and somehow played the last 10 or 11 holes under par. I was able to do that, and I birdied 18 yesterday, which was huge for my confidence. Two-over felt like 64 yesterday after being 5-over. So extremely happy with my game today. All around, it was really solid. I made some great putts, made some good par putts to kind of keep the momentum going.”

The cut line danced around 2-over and 3-over all morning and afternoon. With the low 70 and ties assured of a weekend spot, it edged toward 4-over, but never quite made it. Hard-luck story of the first two days would be the aforementioned Austin. Despite the four penalty strokes, the Floridian came to the final hole on the cut line, made bogey and missed by one club, err stroke. Many pre-tournament favorites also cleaned out their lockers on Friday, including Bubba Watson (4-over), Nicolas Colsaerts (4-over), Luke Donald (5-over), Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington (both 6-over).

Friday afternoon revealed a Tiger Woods (1-over) who was unable to find his mojo. He made consecutive birdies at Nos. 5 and 6, a third at No. 15 and another at No. 17, but found away to give them back with four matching bogies. Woods found himself mired in 39th place, with Phil Mickelson (2-over) one stroke behind. Not to fear, golf fans and tournament organizers. The top 10 heading into Saturday’s third round includes the aforementioned Duffner, Scott, Simpson and Rose, Jim Furyk (65-67), Matt Kuchar (67-66) and Steve Stricker (68-67).

For the record, 75 golfers made the cut, none of whom was a club professional. The best performance from a guy with a 9-to-5 job came from England’s David Muttit, first assistant at New Mexico’s Paa-Ko Ridge golf club. Muttit turned in rounds of 75-70 to miss the halfway cut by two strokes.