Norton, September 6

Former winner Charley Hoffman earned a three-shot lead after the second round of the Deutsche Bank Championship on Saturday, while fellow American Jordan Spieth missed second straight cut for the first time.

Hoffman took advantage of his early tee time to gather nine birdies for an eight-under 63 at the Boston TPC where he won in 2010. He posted a 12-under 130 halfway total, with Brendon de Jonge of Zimbabwe (68) the closest pursuer on nine-under. Australian Jason Day, who has won three times in his last four events, including the PGA Championship, sat six shots back in a tie for 10th after 68.

Masters and US Open champion Spieth missed his second straight cut with a 73 for his fourth above-par round in a row. It is the first time in his pro career that the 22-year-old Spieth has missed successive cuts. With the PGA Tour taking a one-week break before the third event of the FedExCup play-offs, the BMW Championship near Chicago, the world No 2 plans to forget about golf for a few days before getting back to work.

“I’m going to take some time away, probably it’s going to be good for me to take four days and not touch a club,” he told reporters, largely blaming his putting for the six-over 148 total. “I don’t feel it’s far off, even though my scores have been far off. It’s almost been like a bad dream, like I have to wake up and get the putts to go in again.”

Hoffman, a three-time PGA Tour winner who was on the leaderboard for a long time at the Masters this year before finishing equal ninth, started well with eight birdies on his opening 14 holes, including a near hole-in-one on the par-three 11th, his second hole. “This is one of those courses that when you get up on the tees it sets up well visually for me,” Hoffman said. “I also tend to make a few more putts on these greens. I’m in a nice position, but obviously we have a lot of golf left.”

Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy was among those with a lot of ground to make up after he shot 74 to fall 14 strokes behind.