SCOTTSDALE, Arizz. (AP) — Ryo Hisatsune turned a water ball into a birdie to electrify the juiced up crowds at the Phoenix Open.
Scottie Scheffler did what he needed to make yet another cut by turning in the kind of round expected by the world’s No. 1 player.
Hisatsune chipped in for birdie after driving his ball in the water on the par-4 17th hole and shot a bogey-free 8-under 63 on Friday to surge into the lead in the second round of Phoenix Open.
“It was very lucky,” Hisatsune said through an interpreter. “A nice tee shot, but I kind of a pulled it little bit into the water. Some more reset and make it, (so) going to be more fun.”
Scheffler enjoyed his round a bit more than he did while opening with a 73 that put him danger of missing a cut for the first time since the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Classic.
After working on his grip, Scheffler shot 2-under 33 on the front nine to move close to the cut line and left no doubt with four birdies on the back to extend his streak to 66 cuts made, longest active on the PGA Tour. His 3-foot birdie on No. 18 capped a bogey-free 65 that got him to 4 under, seven shots back.
And don’t think the seven-shot difference is insurmountable.
Scheffler has won twice when trailing by more than shots, including the 2022 Phoenix Open, where he made up nine shots for his first PGA Tour victory.
“Felt a bit lost out there at times yesterday, so today felt a lot better, felt more in control of my game,” he said. "You can obviously see that through the cleaner card today."
Two-time Phoenix Open champion Brooks Koepka had a much tougher go of it, finishing at 2 over to miss the cut in his second tournament since being reinstated by the PGA Tour. He followed an opening 75 with a 69.
Two Japanese players made the most noise on another warm day at TPC Scottsdale's Stadium Course.
Two-time Phoenix Open champion Hideki Matsuyama had a run of six straight birdies to shoot 64 in the morning wave to take the lead at 10 under.
He was surpassed by his countryman in the afternoon.
Hisatsune was at 5 under after two birdies on the front nine, then electrified the rowdy crowds by going 6 under in a five-hole stretch — highlighted by his chip-in at 17 — to reach 11-under 131.
Overnight leader Chris Gotterup shot 71 to join Pierceson Coody (68) at 8 under.
Hisatsune tied for second at Torrey Pines last week after missing the cut in the season-opening Sony Open. He had four top-10s as a PGA Tour rookie last year.
The 23-year-old kicked off his closing flourish with birdies on 13 and 14, then dropped in an 8-foot eagle putt on the par-5 15th. Hisatsune sent roars through the stadium par-3 16th by sinking a 7-foot birdie putt and smiled sheepishly at his chip in on 17 after hitting his tee shot left into the pond.
Now he'll be paired with Matsuyama on Saturday in the third round.
“It's some dreams on my pairing,” Hisatsune said.
Matsuyama opened with a bogey-free 68 and began his second round with three straight pars.
Then he started hitting it close.
Matsuyama birdied the par-5 13th despite hitting his drive left into the desert and hit his approach to 3 feet on the 498-yard par-4 14th for another birdie. He added another a 3-footer and revved up the already-juiced crowd with a 29-foot birdie putt on 16.
Matsuyama had a two-putt birdie on the reachable par-4 17th and capped a 6-under 30 on the back nine with a 4-foot birdie putt on No. 18. He hit it inside 10 feet for two more birdies on Nos. 4-5, but bogeyed the par-4 ninth after pulling his tee shot into the thick left rough.
“It’s a great golf course,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter. “You have to play well here, strike the ball well to play well and the crowd gets me geared up for that.”
Matsuyama will have a comfortable pairing in the third round with Hisatsune.
That could change if Scheffler makes another run.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Scottie Scheffler waves to the crowd after getting a birdie on the 10th hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Hideki Matsuyama, of Japan, hits his tee shot at the 17th hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Ryo Hisatsune, of Japan, hits his tee shot at the ninth hole during the first round of the Phoenix Open golf tournament at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026, in Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted Friday after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.
Trump said later Friday that he won't apologize for the post. “I didn't make a mistake,” he said.
The Republican president’s Thursday night post was blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. A rare admission of a misstep by the White House, the deletion came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal — including by Republicans — the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously.
The post was part of a flurry of overnight activity on Trump's Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and Trump's first-term attorney general finding no evidence of systemic fraud.
Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric — from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen to crude generalizations about majority-Black countries.
The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump proclamation cited “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness” and “the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
Nearly all of the 62-second clip appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as 2020 votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two jungle primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.
Those frames originated from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said by text.
Disney's 1994 feature film that Leavitt referenced is set on the savannah, not in the jungle, and it does not include great apes.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.
By noon, the post had been taken down, with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.
Trump, answering questions from reporters accompanying him aboard Air Force One on Friday night, said the video was about fraudulent elections and that he liked what he saw.
“I liked the beginning. I saw it and just passed it on, and I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” he said.
Asked if he condemned the racist parts of the video, Trump said, “Of course I do.”
The White House explanation raises questions about control of Trump’s social media account, which he's used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make other announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy posts.
The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry about how posts are vetted and when the public can know when Trump himself is posting.
Mark Burns, a pastor and a prominent Trump supporter who is Black, said Friday on X that he'd spoken “directly” with Trump and that he recommended to the president that he fire the staffer who posted the video and publicly condemn what happened.
“He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” Burns posted.
Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., told The Associated Press she does “not buy the White House's commentary.”
“If there wasn’t a climate, a toxic and racist climate within the White House, we wouldn’t see this type of behavior regardless of who it’s coming from,” Clarke said, adding that Trump “is a racist, he’s a bigot, and he will continue to do things in his presidency to make that known.”
Trump and White House social media accounts frequently repost memes and artificial intelligence-generated videos. As Leavitt did Friday, Trump allies typically cast them as humorous.
This time, condemnations flowed from across the spectrum — along with demands for an apology that had not come by late afternoon.
At a Black History Month market in Harlem, the historically Black neighborhood in New York City, vendor Jacklyn Monk said Trump’s post was embarrassing even if it was eventually deleted. “The guy needs help. I'm sorry he's representing our country. … It’s horrible that it was this month, but it would be horrible if it was in March also.”
In Atlanta, Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., resurfaced her father's words: “Yes. I'm Black. I'm proud of it. I'm Black and beautiful.” Black Americans, she said, “are beloved of God as postal workers and professors, as a former first lady and president. We are not apes.”
The U.S. Senate's lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” said Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans' midterm campaign arm.
Another Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents. Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologize.
Some Republicans who face tough reelections this November voiced concerns, as well. The result was an unusual cascade of intraparty criticism for a president who has enjoyed a stranglehold over fellow Republicans who stayed silent during previous Trump controversies for fear of a public spat with the president or losing his endorsement in a future campaign.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the video “utterly despicable” and pointed to Trump's wider political concerns that could help explain Republicans' willingness to speak out. Johnson asserted that Trump is trying anything to distract from economic conditions and attention on the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
“You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,” he said. “You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”
There is a long history in the U.S. of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false, racist ways. The practice dates to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories used to justify the enslavement of Black people, and later to dehumanize freed Black people as uncivilized threats to white people.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his famous text “Notes on the State of Virginia” that Black women were the preferred sexual partners of orangutans. President Dwight Eisenhower, discussing school desegregation in the 1950s, suggested white parents were rightfully concerned about their daughters being in classrooms with “big Black bucks.” Obama, as a candidate and president, was featured as a monkey or other primates on T-shirts and other merchandise.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” language similar to what Adolf Hitler used to dehumanize Jews in Nazi Germany.
During his first White House term, Trump called a swath of majority-Black, developing nations “shithole countries.” He initially denied saying it but admitted in December 2025 that he did.
When Obama was in the White House, Trump pushed false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump, in interviews that helped endear him to conservatives, demanded that Obama prove he was a “natural-born citizen” as required to become president.
Obama eventually released birth records, and Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii. But immediately after, he said, falsely, that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton started the birtherism attacks.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Lawn before departing the White House, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
FILE - Former President Barack Obama talks with then President-elect Donald Trump as Melania Trump reads the funeral program before the state funeral for former President Jimmy Carter at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
