Rachel Turton had just one bogey on Friday to turn in the hot round of the day. Photo: Danny Voss / PDGA

The difficulty of Northwood picked up a few notches on Friday — both on the physical and mental side.

Dark skies and lightning lingered in the Morton, Illinois area during Round 2 of the PDGA Champions Cup presented by Bushnell, forcing lengthy delays and even tougher conditions when the play resumed and continued into the night.

Finishing up nearly nine hours after her round as the sun finally and briefly peaked through late in the afternoon was Great Britain's Rachel Turton with the hot round of the day. Her steady 4-under round in the mud and wind springboarded her to the top of the leaderboard.

She has company.

Kristin Tattar carded an eagle on 18 to go 5-under over the final five holes. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

Kristin Tattar finished strong and Valerie Mandujano did enough early to keep pace for a three-way tie in first place heading into the weekend. It's the first time there has been a three-way tie at an FPO Major after 36 holes since 2019 PDGA Pro Worlds ... in Peoria.

While the weekend battle is set for FPO, the MPO field has plenty of work to do and a grind of a day ahead of them.

Play was suspended at 7:40 p.m. CT on Friday due to darkness with the lead card of Casey White, Chris Dickerson, Niklas Anttila and Joel Freeman only complete two holes.

Over half the field will be on the course at 6:45 a.m. CT on Saturday to complete Round 2 and will report back in the afternoon for Round 3.

Here's the DGN media plan for Saturday

Here's the MPO leaderboard when play was suspended:

We're halfway and not quite halfway to crowning PDGA Major champions in Illinois.