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GREENSBORO -- It was a busy Friday at Sedgefield Country Club, where golfers had one eye on all those low-hanging clouds, one eye lining up all those birdie putts and another eye doing a double-take at the leaderboard wondering who that 16-year-old kid was flirting with the lead at the Wyndham Championship.

Yeah, we know: That's three eyes. But that's how many it took to play what passed for the second round at Sedgefield Country Club, where everyone kept waiting for the weather to turn into a broken sprinkler head. When it didn't, players offered a downpour of their own, drenching the course with birdies -- lots of them.

Trying to cram the better part of two rounds into 12 hours of daylight following Thursday's thunderstorms left golfers and fans breathless.

They saw a lot -- from Sergio Garcia making not one but two eagles, to 16-year-old Justin Thomas becoming the third youngest golfer to make the cut at a PGA Tour event.

It was that kind of day.

The only thing missing Friday was some clarity on the leaderboard. Where it stands somewhere between 31 and 36 holes: Journeyman Chris Riley is the clubhouse leader, completing his first-round 66 on Friday morning before firing a 7-under 63 in the afternoon. He's tied with Ryan Moore, who strung together four consecutive birdies in Friday's dying light and still has one hole to play, the ninth, before completing his second round.

Riley and Moore are one shot ahead of Jeff Maggert, who was 10-under and standing on the 18th tee when play was suspended because of darkness. Wake Forest alumnus Bill Haas, Chez Reavie and Garcia are tied for fourth, two shots back.

Garcia followed his first-round 67 with a 64 in the afternoon. Haas completed his first round of 62 -- the lowest score of the tournament so far -- before heading back out and shooting a 67.

So there you have it.

Twenty-eight golfers were still on the course when PGA Tour officials called it a day. They'll head back out this morning at 7:45 to finish the never-ending second round and cut the field to the lowest 70 golfers plus ties. Tour officials expect to get the third round under way between 10 a.m. and noon with threesomes going off on two tees.

"(Today) is going to be a little weird," Moore said. "Go warm up a little bit, go out and hit three shots, hopefully, and then go back to the hotel for a while."

By then, maybe more golfers will employ the strategy Moore and Riley have used to forge a lead. While many around them are pulling out drivers this week, Moore and Riley have largely resisted the temptation. Save for a three-hole stretch starting at No. 13, Riley never touched his driver. The rest of the day he hit 3-wood or hybrid and tiptoed his way around Sedgefield's gnarly rough, which is rapidly earning a reputation as just plain nasty.

"The rough is pretty thick, so I'm trying to keep the ball in the fairway," said Riley, who hit 11 of 14 fairways during his second round. "I don't mind hitting a 2-iron (and) 7-iron or 3-wood (and) 6-iron compared to guys hitting drivers and missing fairways."

Riley's playing partners Friday, Kent Jones and Mathias Gronberg, kept giving him an odd look when he stepped to the tee box, hybrid in hand, as if to say, "What are you doing?"

"I'm putting the ball in play," Riley said. "I'm pretty happy with my round, actually delighted with my round."

Sedgefield has a way of bringing a smile to even the most ornery PGA Tour player's face. Take Garcia. Earlier this week the world's seventh-ranked golfer seemed anything but thrilled at having to spend four days in August playing golf in Greensboro, the result of a poor season that has him wallowing in 115th place in the FedEx Cup points standings. That's good enough to get him into next week's Barclays, but he'll need a strong finish here to guarantee going deeper into the playoffs.

But a round that included two birdies and two eagles -- both coming at Sedgefield's baby par-5s -- seemed to make the week more tolerable for Garcia. "The course was there for the taking," he said.

Just as Grimsley graduate Carl Pettersson did when he won this tournament last year, Haas will provide an injection of local intrigue into the weekend. He's a Charlotte native who played collegiately at Wake Forest, where he was a three-time All-American.

It's been a season to forget for Haas, who came here this week having missed the cut in 12 of his last 22 tournaments. To make the cut is refreshing. To be mingling with the leaders is something else.

"Any time you can make a cut is good, and to be 9-under par after two rounds is even better," Haas said. "If you're not confident, you're not going to play well. There's nobody that says, 'I didn't have it this week, and I won.' Tiger (Woods), maybe, with his 'C' game, can win. He's still confident."

And Woods isn't here, meaning any one of a dozen golfers can win this thing.

Even Thomas, the 16-year-old from Goshen, Ky., entertained the thought for a brief period Friday when he birdied his first hole to go to 6-under, two shots off the lead. He stumbled down the back nine with a 38, but is still at 3-under.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't finish the way I wanted to and get near the lead and have a chance," Thomas said. " ... It was still cool seeing my name on the leaderboard."

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com