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Southport, England • Jordan Spieth is in the hunt for another major once again. The 23-year-old two-time major champion leads the 146th British Open by two shots over Matt Kuchar after adding a 1-under 69 Friday to his first-round 5-under 65.

Tony Finau plodded his way through heavy wind and rain all afternoon Friday at Royal Birkdale during the second round of the British Open, finishing tied for 35th at 3 over par and nine shots behind Spieth.

During his first ever trip to England, Finau said the biggest challenge he faced Friday involved the damp conditions.

"Honestly the biggest challenge was the wetness out there today," Finau said. "You have no idea how far the clubs are going to be going, then you only start swinging at 60-70 percent and the greens get slower, so whenever you're dealing with rain, that becomes the toughest challenge."

The forecast called for 25 mph winds and consistent rain throughout Friday afternoon, and Finau teed off at 4:04 p.m. local time.

"Preparing for wet conditions are just really, really hard because the speed of the greens change when it gets really wet and you just don't know exactly how much they change, so you struggle not only with putting but also hitting shots into the greens and how much are they going to bounce," Finau said.

Finau began the day at even, five behind the lead, but made back-to-back bogeys to start his second round and what he called his worst swing of the championship on the ninth tee when he drove it out of bounds and couldn't find the ball in thick rough.

"Yeah, it was tough to start like that but you just have to [bounce back]," Finau said. "I know it's one of those golf courses where you are going to make mistakes, and I made some of them early unfortunately and that put me in some bad positions but I tried to put my head down and play; I was able to do that.

"Sometimes in links golf you can spray it out here and get away with it, but unfortunately on nine I didn't get away with it and wasn't very happy with having to re-tee and I knew we had a long haul coming in after that."

The double bogey on nine led to a 3-over 37 on the front and Finau responded with an even-par 36 on the back nine.

"I was really pleased shooting even on the back nine; I think in these conditions it was very respectable," Finau said.

As the 27-year-old was crafting his back nine, the cut line loomed large at 5-over par. Finau dropped to 4-over with just a few holes left and had to deal with that mental game in addition to trying weather conditions.

"One hundred percent I was thinking about the cut line down the stretch; I just felt I wanted to give myself a chance going into the weekend but I also knew you have to make the weekend first," Finau said. "When I was at 4-over I was definitely thinking cut-line."

Finau did create some relief and space with a clutch birdie on the 15th to get back to 3-over.

"When that putt went in on 15, that was huge just to have some sort of cushion coming in, because you never know, you could hit good shots out there and not be rewarded and make an easy bogey, so to have a cushion coming down 17 and 18 was really nice."

Now that the third-year PGA Tour pro stands nine strokes behind Spieth going into the weekend, what's the right mentality?

"We've got 36 holes to go and you've got a guy in Spieth leading this tournament who has major championship experience," Finau said. "But I feel I'm pretty close to the rest of the pack. The guys that are at 1-under I think are in the top 10. So I can make a run up the leaderboard pretty fast. I am nine shots back but maybe only four or five out of being right there."

Sitting tied for 35th with nine others, Finau will tee off with veteran J.B. Holmes on Saturday at 5:15 a.m. MDT.

"I obviously need two really good ones but I won't consider myself out of the tournament being at 3-over," Finau said.

Finau watched the early broadcast on Friday and saw the windy conditions facing the morning wave. Once he got on to the course, he knew the conditions would be a battle all day.

"When you mix rain with wind and wet conditions, your hands are always wet, you're not swinging as hard, the ball is not going as far," Finau said.

With more rain and wind in Saturday's forecast, it seems to be a battle of patience and will ahead for both Finau and the rest of the players in the 146th British Open.

Twitter: @johnstongarrett —

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Jordan Spieth shoots a 1-under 69 to take a two-shot lead over Matt Kuchar heading into the weekend. › C6