Kuchar can turn it on again in Genesis

Day Two, Sky Sports 4, 7pm Friday

Fog delayed the start of the Genesis Open on Thursday and rain is expected to affect play on the second day at Riviera.

That makes second-round threeball advice quite difficult but as the rain falls in California, it seems likely that the ability to hit the ball a long way will become more important.

But one player who should be able to score lower than his two playing partners is Matt Kuchar, who had a decent two-under-par 69 on Thursday (8.02pm).

Finding fairways and greens should become even more important as the tournament heads towards the halfway cut and there are doubts about the other members of the group, JB Holmes and James Hahn.

Big-hitting is usually an integral part of Holmes's game, but he was not at his best off the tee in the opening round. His average distance was 265 yards in comparison to his season's average of 307, which is the 15th longest on the US Tour.

He found 43 per cent of his fairways and just 50 per cent of greens in regulation and he needs to improve on those figures if he is to comfortably make the weekend.

Hahn's problem may be that he could struggle to hit the ball far enough.

He had bogeys at three long par fours on Thursday, the 479-yard 12th, the 459-yard 13th and 487-yard 15th and his difficulties are likely to get worse if the rain sets in.

Hahn has also struggled in recent tournaments, missing two cuts before a 58th finish at Pebble Beach last week.

Kuchar was a much steadier performer in the first round and if he can get his putter going he could make a push towards the top of the leaderboard.

Recommendation
M Kuchar to win threeball
2pts 6-4 Coral