US PGA Championship 2018: Schedule, tee times, and other info, leaderboard LIVE: Latest golf scores and results

PGA Championship 2018: Schedule, tee times, and other info US PGA Championship 2018 leaderboard LIVE: Latest golf scores and results from day two at Bellerive Country Club PGA Championship 2018 Leaderboard: Latest Scores and Standings

Gary Woodland maintained his lead at the 2018 PGA Championship on Friday, as the action began to hot up at Bellerive Golf Course in Missouri.

Friday's play saw fierce competition between Woodland and Kevin Kisner at the top of the leaderboard, with the lead swapping between the two players on several occasions.

Woodland just managed to edge proceedings. He shot a 66 to move 10-under and take the clubhouse lead. A bogey at the 18th saw Kisner drop a shot behind at nine under.

Other stars also moved into contention during Friday's second round. U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka shot a brilliant 63 to move to within two shots of the lead.

The second round of the final major tees off bright and early from St. Louis on Friday. The 100th PGA Championship features the deepest major field of the year and a full helping of questions about the course and its conditioning. Those questions always tend to consume the practice days at a major, but there appear to be some real problems given the heat and humidity and water that have stressed this Bellerive track out all summer.

The first round featured higher-than-expected scores. I think the prevailing wisdom was there would be boatloads of scores in the mid-60s and that we were well on our way to a winning score at 20-under or even higher. That’s still in play, but the scores were not as low as expected in the first round.

The leaderboard is what we expected. The big hitters and young talents playing well mostly posted rounds in the red and are in position with 54 more to play. Rickie Fowler set the early pace with a 5-under 65, and then Gary Woodland came in late to move into solo first with a 6-under 64.

Tiger Woods is back after a three-year absence from the PGA and he opened with an even-par round of 70. All in, the number felt like an successful escape following a 3-over in two-hole start. Tiger looked on the verge of an ejection from the championship, but then played the rest of the course in 3-under to fight back into even-par position. That’s the same spot as Rory McIlroy, a favorite all week. So Tiger is still in fine position and he’ll play Friday afternoon during the TV window on TNT.

While television viewers in North America were understandably upset on Friday at their inability to watch the stellar second rounds played by the likes of Gary Woodland, Kevin Kisner, Brooks Koepka and Charl Schwartzel at Bellerive Country Club, things could have been worse. Across the pond, those in the United Kingdom and Ireland interested in watching the PGA Championship have been deprived of network television coverage, a state of affairs duplicated in Latin America.

The situation came about after the PGA of America was unable to reach a financial agreement with Sky Sports—which covered the PGA in the U.K. and Ireland until 2016. The BBC picked up the PGA coverage from Sky at the 11th hour, but the corporation, which has basically opted out of television coverage of golf over the last few years, did little to enhance the broadcast and provide a quality product.

The PGA then signed with broadcasters Eleven Sports to pick up coverage beginning this year. Launched in April 2015, the company portrays itself as an “international sports content platform.” Owned by Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani (whose portfolio also contains Leeds United Football Club), it focuses mostly on soccer coverage. According to its website, Eleven Sports deliver more than 25,000 live hours of sport per year to more than 17 million paying customers.

Kansas-bred Gary Woodland felt right at home in enemy territory and delivered his best performance in a major Thursday at the PGA Championship 2018.

Woodland used his power to birdie the two par 5s on the soft turf of Bellerive, and he relied on a new grip and new confidence in his putter for everything else on his way to a 6-under 64 for a one-shot lead over Rickie Fowler in the opening round of the year's final major.

Woodland recognised close to 100 friends and family among thousands in a gallery that withstood the sweltering weather, and his only fault was trying too hard. He made a careless bogey on the opening hole, had to make a 15-foot par putt at No. 5. And then he settled down and was on his way.

Bellerive allowed for low scoring, provided the ball stayed in the short grass. Woodland had an 18-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole that would have tied the PGA Championship record, and it stopped just short. It was one of the few he missed.