May 6, 2016 3 min read

Andrew Loupe took a 1-stroke lead over Roberto Castro at 8 under at the Wells Fargo Championship, while Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler were close behind heading into the weekend.

Locally, Steve Wheatcroft saw his chance to stay at the top of the leaderboard vanish on the par-4 18th, where he took a triple-bogey 7. Wheatcroft was tied for the lead with Loupe at the time and the triple bogey dropped him to 5-under par and tied for fifth place.

Wheatcroft had two birdies and a bogey before approaching the 18th.

Meanwhile, Loupe shot a 1-under 71 on Friday, an up-and-down round with four birdies and three bogeys. Castro had a 66 for the best round of the day. He eagled No. 18, one of the toughest closing holes on the PGA Tour.

Chesson Hadley and Mark Hubbard were two shots back. Hadley had a 67, and Hubbard shot 68.

Fowler shot a 68, and Mickelson had a 70 to reach 5 under.

Defending champion Rory McIlroy bogeyed the final two holes for a 69 to drop six strokes back.

Rohanna makes cut: Rachel Rohanna bounced back from a 2-over par 74 Thursday by shooting a 3-under par 69 Friday in the Yokohama Tire Classic. Rohanna improved 31 places to tied for 35th after a four-birdie, one-bogey effort and made the cut.

Rohanna is 1-under for the tournament, 8 strokes behind leader So Yeon Ryu, who sits at 9-under.

Golfer DQed after putter incident: PGA Tour golfer Zac Blair has been disqualified from the Wells Fargo Championship after hitting himself in the head with his putter and then using the bent club to finish out the hole.

Blair smacked the putter against his head Friday after missing a birdie putt on the fifth hole.

He could have finished the round by using a different club to putt, but was disqualified when he finished the hole by tapping in for a par with the bent putter.

Blair was disqualified by officials for breaking rule 4-3b, which stipulates if “a player’s club is damaged other than in the normal course of play rendering it non-conforming or changing its playing characteristics, the club must not subsequently be used or replayed during the round.”

Blair said in a statement he didn’t notice the putter was bent until the next hole, at which time he immediately turned himself in by notifying a PGA Tour official of the situation.

Blair said he let his emotions get the best of him.