PITTSFORD, N.Y. – An eventful round that Jordan Spieth counted among his most unlucky was enough to secure him a weekend tee time at the PGA Championship, but not much solace.

“I'll be the first to admit, I've gotten a lot of good breaks in my career, but, man, I got some hosed situations out there in the last two days,” said Spieth, whose 2-over 72 left him just inside the cut line, at 5 over, and 10 shots off the lead.

Perhaps the most unlucky moment for Spieth came at the short par-4 14^th hole when his drive found the front bunker.

“It landed almost in between the bunkers. It was about a yard from hitting in between and just kicking on, and it kind of hit the side,” he said. “The bunkers are wet, so every other bunker shot, and I had a lot of them today, they all go back almost to the back, which on that hole would be perfect because then you can kind of carry it further and have it kind of scoot up the hill.”

Instead, his ball was imbedded in the lip of the bunker and because of a left wrist injury that forced him to miss last week’s AT&T Byron Nelson, Spieth wasn’t able to hit the ball the way he wanted and he caught his attempt thin.

“It would have hurt. I pulled up hard, and I think I thinned it and hit it about 120 yards,” said Spieth, who sailed his second shot over the green and out of bounds.

Spieth managed to scramble for bogey and make the cut, which was an accomplishment considering the uncertainty to start the week.

“Missing the cut would be such a dagger because I could have just taken the week off. That's where your brain goes,” he said.

Entering last fall, Wake Forest head coach Kim Lewellen was asked to diagnose why her Demon Deacons, world-beaters each of the last two regular seasons, had fallen flat in their two trips to Grayhawk for the NCAA Division I Women's Championship. Two seasons ago at nationals, Wake fell from seventh to 12^th on the final stroke-play day to miss match play, and last year, the Deacs didn’t even make it to Monday, placing 16^th.

“With the caliber of players we have and the outside goals they have, we need to balance that better so that they are rested and peaking at NCAAs,” Lewellen said back in August. “We have great players who can play any golf course, so I don’t think it’s that we’re not ready for the golf course, I just think we’ve been tired the last two times.”

This spring, the Demon Deacons wound down their spring slate more than a full month prior to the start of the ACC Championship and also took a spring-break trip to Walt Disney World. And on Friday afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona, No. 2-ranked Wake looked refreshed playing alongside No. 1 Stanford and No. 3 LSU. The Demon Deacons beat those two schools by a combined 24 shots and fired a 9-under 279 to take a one-shot lead over Oklahoma State, which played in the morning wave.

Senior Lauren Walsh was the early standout for Wake, birdieing Nos. 6-9 to close out a 5-under 67. Fellow senior Rachel Kuehn and sophomore Mimi Rhodes each added one-bogey 70s, and no Wake player shot over par – not even sophomore Carolina Chacarra, who had two doubles on her card.

“We are very pleased with how the team played today,” Lewellen said Friday. “All their practice and preparation this season has been for this event. It is definitely a marathon, not a sprint, but we are hoping to carry this momentum through the rest of the week.”

The top-ranked and reigning national champion Cardinal got off to a slow start, 8 over after playing the back nine, but freshman Megha Ganne birdied No. 4-7 to shoot 68, junior Sadie Englemann added a 71 and Rose Zhang shot even par to offset poor rounds from Kelly Xu (77, though she did birdie two of her last three) and Rachel Heck (82), who notched zero birdies in her first competitive round since October.

Stanford’s even-par day slots the Card T-7 along with Duke and Florida State.

Georgia, which made match play last year before falling to Stanford in the quarterfinals, is tied for third with South Carolina, another perennial power that has struggled to crack Grayhawk’s code, at 2 under. New Mexico and Texas A&M, a reigning national semifinalist, share fifth at 1 under.

LSU got an opening 70 from senior Ingrid Lindblad, but it also had to count a 78 and is solo 18^th at 6 over. USC had to count a 79 as senior Malia Nam carded an 8-over-par 13 at the par-5 fourth hole in shooting 85. The ninth-ranked Trojans are T-20 with Augusta, the worst-ranked team in the field at No. 82 in Golfstat.

No. 5 Mississippi State is the lowest top-10 squad on the leaderboard at T-26 at 13 over.

Individually, Oklahoma State’s Maddison Hinson-Tolchard leads at 6 under, a shot clear of Walsh. Ganne, Texas Tech’s Shannon Tan, San Jose State’s Lucia Lopez-Ortega and Hinson-Tolchard’s Oklahoma State teammate Rina Tatematsu are all T-3 at 4 under.

USC athletic director Mike Bohn resigned from his position, he and the school announced Friday.

Bohn's resignation comes at a surprising time, less than four years after he was hired from Cincinnati to replace Lynn Swann, who resigned from the job after three years.

Bohn mentioned "ongoing health challenges" in a statement issued to the Los Angeles Times and told ESPN's Pete Thamel that it was an amicable split with the university.

"It's a great time with USC's emergence into the Big Ten for new leadership to move the program forward," Bohn said.

But the Times reported Friday that Bohn's resignation came shortly after the newspaper asked him and the school about internal criticism of his management of the athletic department. According to the Times, four current and former USC employees said staffers inside the department had raised concerns about Bohn.

As USC's athletic department and football team needed revamping, the 62-year-old Bohn arrived as the first athletic director in the previous 25 years without any prior connection to the school.

The biggest personnel move during his tenure was the firing of football coach Clay Helton and subsequent hiring of Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma last year. The move produced immediate results: USC went from 4-8 to 11-3 and was one win away from the College Football Playoff while boasting the Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. This year's team is expected to compete for a CFP spot again with Williams under center.

But perhaps the more consequential decision ushered under Bohn's management was the orchestrating of USC's move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten alongside UCLA. The sport-altering move, which was announced last year and will go into effect next year, not only put USC in a conference alongside Michigan and Ohio State but also allowed it to be part of a seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal between the Big Ten and broadcasters Fox, CBS and NBC.

"Over the last four years, the USC athletics department has transformed into a national powerhouse," university president Carol Folt wrote in a letter to the USC community. "I am committed to ensuring we have the right leadership in place to achieve our goals. As part of that commitment and as we prepare to move to the Big Ten, we conducted a thorough review of the athletics department, including its operations, culture, and strategy. Having built a strong foundation over the last few years, now is the time for new direction grounded in our values and in expertise needed to fulfill our aspirational vision for Trojan athletics."

The Times reported that USC retained Gina Maisto Smith, a Philadelphia-based attorney from Cozen O'Connor, to conduct the internal review that Folt mentioned in her letter.

The football team wasn't the only program heading in the right direction under Bohn. The men's basketball team made three straight NCAA tournament appearances and just signed LeBron James' son, Bronny. Bohn also hired Lindsay Gottlieb away from the Cleveland Cavaliers to coach the women's basketball team, which advanced to the NCAA tournament this spring in her second season.

Along with USC and Cincinnati, Bohn previously served as the athletic director at Idaho, San Diego State and Colorado.

PITTSFORD, N.Y. -- Sweaters one day, umbrellas the next. No one is sure what to expect at this PGA Championship except that Scottie Scheffler is locked in at another major and Oak Hill is a mighty test.

Scheffler delivered a mix of birdies and great recoveries from wet, nasty rough Friday until he couldn't escape one last errant tee shot on the 18th that cost him the lead, but certainly did little to dim his optimism.

"When you can hang around the lead and stay in position and hopefully wait to get hot, it's a good position to be in," Scheffler said after a 2-under 68 that gave him a three-way share of the lead with Viktor Hovland and Corey Conners.

"I've done a good job the first two days of keeping the golf course in front of me and scrambling well," he said. "Tomorrow I'm hoping to hit a few more fairways than I did today, make it a little easier on myself. But ultimately, 2 under is a good round around this place."

Rain is in the forecast for Saturday, probably not enough to douse the anticipation of Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka playing together. They were antagonists two years ago -- remember the "Brooksy" chants directed at DeChambeau -- a relationship somewhat mended through their time in the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League.

That feels like long a long time ago, and both have a major on their minds. DeChambeau salvaged a 71 and was two behind; Koepka shot 66 and was three back.

Conners dropped only one shot on the brutal closing stretch on the back nine and posted a 68. Hovland had only one bogey in his round of 67.

They were at 5-under 135, with more variety on the horizon. Rain was in the forecast for Saturday, wind on Sunday, and 18 players were separated by five shots.

There were a few late charges to move into contention (Koepka with a 31 on the back nine), to keep hopes alive (Rory McIlroy with a 69) or simply to make the cut (Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas).

For now, Scheffler is the target as a Masters champion a year ago and a player who has not finished worse than 12th all year.

Hovland, who shared the 54-hole lead at St. Andrews last summer, is getting used to this, too. He dropped only one shot early in his round of 67, and closed with a 7-iron out of wet, thick rough to 5 feet for birdie. It was his 10th consecutive round in the majors when he ended the day among the top 10 on the leaderboard.

Conners had a 68, at one point building a two-shot lead until he had to rely on his short game to account for some errant drives and tough holes on the front nine.

They were two shots clear of DeChambeau and Justin Suh (68).

The leading seven players came from the same side of the draw. They were delayed by two hours from freezing temperatures and a coat of frost on the grass. They avoided the wind Friday morning, and then passing showers took some of fire out of Oak Hill.

"The rain ... just thankfully we didn't have any wind, so that kind of helped us out," Hovland said. "With that rain, the ball went a little bit short. And if you're in the rough, it tends to make that rough a little bit juicier. At the end of the day, it makes the greens softer, and you can maybe be a hair more aggressive."

There were some impressive turnarounds, to be sure.

Shane Lowry had six birdies in an eight-hole stretch in the rainy afternoon until closing with a pair of bogeys. He had to settle for a 67, leaving him in a large group at even-par 140, five shots behind but still very much in the thick of it.

That group included club pro Michael Block (70), and it included Rory McIlroy, who felt as though he hit the ball badly - and sounded like it on one drive with one choice word - and was mildly stunned when he glanced at the leaderboard to find himself in range.

"I think how terribly I've felt over the golf ball over the last two days, the fact that I'm only five back ... I guess that's a good thing, because I know if I can get it in play off the tee, that's the key to my success over the weekend," McIlroy said.

Some players were simply happy to still be around for the weekend.

Rahm, the Masters champion and No. 1 player in the world, opened with a 76 and couldn't get a putt to fall. He was running out of holes, one shot over the cut of 5 over, when he ran off three straight birdies and salvaged a 68 to make the cut with one shot to spare.

Spieth walked off the tee at the drivable 14th figuring he would have a good look at birdie. And then he found such an awkward lie in a front bunker that his shot sailed over the green, over the boundary fence and landed somewhere on the grounds of Irondequoit Country Club. He somehow salvaged a bogey and delivered clutch putts -- none bigger than a 10-footer in the rain for a par on the final hole -- to make the cut on the number.

And now the focus shifts to the top, a mixture of major champions, players making their debuts in the PGA Championship, a PGA Tour rookie and a club professional. All of them were within five shots of the lead.

DeChambeau had a rugged start, particularly on the par-4 sixth hole, so difficult that it yielded only three birdies out of 156 players and had an average score of 4.75. He was in a greenside bunker, took two shot to get out and made double bogey.

He didn't make his first birdie until the par-3 11th hole --- DeChambeau hit 6-iron from 248 yards to 6 feet -- and had two more birdies before a bogey finish.

And then he headed to the range as darkness fell.

"I know what to do. I've done it before," said DeChambeau, the U.S. Open champion at Winged Foot in 2020. "It's been a few years, but it doesn't mean I don't know how to do it, and if it's not my time, it's not my time. I feel like I'm definitely trending in the right direction finally."

Jim Brown, one of the greatest professional and college football players of all time, has died. He was 87.

His wife, Monique, announced Brown's death in an Instagram post Friday afternoon. She said Brown "passed peacefully" Thursday night in their home in Los Angeles.

"To the world he was an activist, actor, and football star," the post stated. "To our family he was a loving and wonderful husband, father, and grandfather. Our hearts are broken..."

In 2020, Brown was selected to the NFL 100 all-time team and also was ranked as the No. 1 all-time player on the College Football 150 list to celebrate those sports' anniversaries. He was named the greatest football player ever by the Sporting News in 2002.

Brown, who was selected in the first round of the 1957 draft, played nine seasons for the Cleveland Browns (1957-65) and led the league in rushing eight of those years. He rushed for 12,312 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry over his career. He also was named a Pro Bowler every year he played. He led the Browns to the league championship game three times, winning the title in 1964, and was named MVP three times.

He ran for at least 100 yards in 58 of his 118 regular-season games, never missing a game. He rushed for more than 1,000 yards in seven seasons, including 1,527 yards in one 12-game season and 1,863 in a 14-game season.

Brown also worked to empower the Black community during the Civil Rights Movement. In June 1967, Brown organized "The Cleveland Summit," a meeting of the nation's top Black athletes, including Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor -- who later became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- to support boxer Muhammad Ali's fight against serving in Vietnam. In later years, Brown worked to curb gang violence in Los Angeles and in 1988 founded Amer-I-Can, a program to help disadvantaged inner-city youth and ex-convicts.

Brown also advocated for modern athletes to be more involved in the Black community.

In a statement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called Brown a "gifted athlete" who "became a forerunner and role model for athletes being involved in social initiatives outside their sports."

"It's impossible to describe the profound love and and gratitude we feel for having the opportunity to be a small piece of Jim's incredible life and legacy," the Browns said in a statement. "We mourn his passing, but celebrate the indelible light he brought to the world.

"Our hearts are with Jim's family, loved ones, and all those he impacted along the way."

Brown retired at 30, at the top of his career. He was filming the movie "The Dirty Dozen" during the offseason in 1966, and production went long because of bad weather. Browns owner Art Modell threatened to suspend Brown's pay if he didn't report to training camp on time. Brown opted to retire, saying he wanted to focus on his movie career and social issues.

Since his retirement, no Browns player has worn his No. 32, and a statue of him went up outside of FirstEnergy Stadium in 2016.

"It's a great moment," Brown said when the statue was unveiled, "because I feel it throughout my body, particularly in my heart and mind."

Current Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam called Brown "a true icon" for the NFL.

"He was certainly the greatest to ever put on a Browns uniform and arguably one of the greatest players in NFL history," a statement released Friday read. "Jim was one of the reasons the Browns have such a tremendous fan base today. So many people grew up watching him just dominate every time he stepped onto the football field but his countless accolades on the field only tell a small part of his story."

Brown lettered in four sports (football, lacrosse, basketball and track) during his college career at Syracuse, and he is also considered one of the greatest lacrosse players of all time, once scoring five goals in one half of a collegiate all-star game.

At Syracuse, Brown also served as the place-kicker during one game against Colgate in 1956, scoring an NCAA single-game record with 43 points on six touchdowns and seven extra points. That same season, he led the nation in rushing touchdowns. In 1955, he led the nation in kickoff return average. Overall, he rushed for 2,091 yards and scored 26 TDs for the Orange.

"When Jim Brown's name was announced in a room, other Hall of Famers stood and applauded him," Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said in a statement. "His persona has stood the test of time -- a fearless and dominant football player. Jim will always be remembered as one of pro football's greatest individuals."

Brown was involved in several off-the-field incidents, especially shortly after he retired.

He was arrested a half-dozen times, mostly on charges of hitting women. He was once fined and spent a day in jail after beating up a golfing partner. He was charged with rape, sexual battery and assault in 1985 (the charges were later dropped). The next year he was arrested for allegedly beating his fiancée. In 1999, Brown was acquitted of domestic threats against his wife but convicted of smashing the window of her car and spent time in jail when he refused to attend domestic violence counseling.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.