CROMWELL, Conn. — Jordan Spieth played well enough in the second round of the Travelers Championship to stay in the lead. Rory McIlroy played just well enough to stay in the tournament.

Spieth shot a 1-under 69 on Friday morning, then watched as a windy afternoon kept anyone from overtaking him.

The conditions also kept fourth-ranked Jason Day from making the cut for a second straight week. He bogeyed the 18th for a 70 to finish at 2 over. No. 3 McIlroy shot a 73, also closing with a bogey, but managed to just sneak into the weekend at even par.

Spieth, who began the day one shot ahead after a first-round 63, started on the back nine. The 23-year-old Texan had to recover from a double bogey on the par-5 13th hole after hitting his tee shot left and out-of-bounds. He also had four birdies and a bogey to reach 8 under.

“We’ve been kind of far behind in a lot of the events in making comeback runs,” said Spieth, the two-time major champion who tied for 35th last week in the U.S. Open. “But being able to be toward the front of the pack on a Saturday afternoon is a beautiful position to be in and one that we’ll certainly embrace. I’m going to try to have a lot of fun this weekend.”

Patrick Reed (66) and Troy Merritt (68) were tied for second. Both fought off wind gusts that exceeded 20 mph to hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens.