KAPALUA, Maui >> The back nine during Friday’s second round of the Sentry Tournament of Champions resembled one of those carnival games where you race plastic horses by trying to roll a baseball into a certain hole. All that was missing was the barker to let you know who was in the lead coming down the stretch.

Gary Woodland rode his pony across the finish line first thanks to five consecutive birdies on the back nine to hold a three-shot, 36-hole lead over this winners-only field that boasts seven of the top eight players in the world. He’ll have to wait until Sunday to claim the real prize, but he’s happy to be at 12 under for the tournament due to the 6-under 67 he carded on Friday in blustery conditions sweeping across the Plantation Course for most of the day.

As you would expect, Woodland is not exactly alone in the wilderness. First-round leader Kevin Tway almost fashioned his second consecutive bogey-free round until shooting a five at the par-4 17th to finish at 9-under 137. He was the only one to go bogey-free on Thursday and just one of two to manage a bogey-free round so far in windy and rainy conditions to keep him in contention (Xander Schauffele was the only golfer to pull it off Friday).

Tway is tied for second with Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy. Both fired 5-under 68s to find themselves in the thick of things entering the weekend. McIlroy is playing here for the first time and has already said how much he likes Maui and this crazy golf course built on the side of a mountain. Being long off the tee is key here. Just make sure you keep the ball in these wide fairways.

If you miss you will pay a steep price. Just ask Marc Leishman (70—138) and Jason Day (71—140), who carded a pair of triple bogeys that kept them from getting cozier with Woodland. Playing partners Justin Thomas (72—139) and Dustin Johnson (74—141) had untimely double bogeys that pushed them back in the pack entering moving day.

Johnson had a strange trip on the fourth that led to the double after hitting a ball out of the rough that wasn’t his own. He followed it up with a par and a bogey to drop to 2 under for the tournament before righting the ship somewhat to come in at 5 under and tied for 12th. His 1-over effort for the day was the first time in 32 rounds here that he finished out of the red.

Woodland didn’t resemble a second-round leader in the early going with a bogey at the tough par-3 second. But he got things moving in the right direction with a chip-in for birdie at the 11th, the first of five in a row to give him a little breathing room entering the weekend. He could have made it six straight, but he lipped out a little 6-footer at the 16th, parred the 17th after almost hitting his drive into the gulch guarding the front of the green and then birdied the last to build the three-shot margin over a trio of hot golfers.

The Kansas native made a similar run last year at Waialae in the second round of the Sony Open in Hawaii. Sitting at 5 over for the tournament standing on the ninth tee, Woodland proceeded to birdie eight out of the last 10 to make the cut and wind up tied for seventh at 14 under for the tournament. In that second round, he shot a 39 on the front and a 28 on the back.

“I don’t remember what I did there, I remember making a bunch,” Woodland said. “I remember playing well. I really enjoy Waialae. I’ve had some success there the last four years. But that’s a golf course where you can definitely get going. Here, it’s a little more difficult. The wind’s blowing a lot more, the greens are massive, but you can get on the wrong side of some of these pins pretty quickly. So Waialae is a little easier to roll off six, seven, eight in a row. This one’s a little different.”

Woodland will be paired with DeChambeau, with McIlroy and Tway one hole in front. In his first time here, McIlroy likes his chances.

“I’m driving it great,” McIlroy said. “I got the new driver in the bag and it feels really good. It’s been a nice start to the year. It is something to build on going into the weekend. I just need to keep hitting good golf shots and giving myself chances.”