3. Four-way tie at The Northern Trust:

Spieth (65), Fowler (66) join Johnson in four-way tie at top.

Dustin Johnson (right), Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler and Jhonattan Vegas share the lead after two rounds in New York.

OLDWESTBURY, N.Y. — Two swings cost Dustin Johnson the lead. It wasn’t long before Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler caught up to him in The Northern Trust, setting up aweekend of star power in the opening Fed Ex Cup playoff event.

Johnson, finally looking like the No. 1 player who looked unstoppable in the spring, appeared on the verge of building a big lead at Glen Oaks Club until consecutive tee shots wound up on the wrong holes and forced him to scramble just to escape with bogey.

Fowler made up a five-shot deficit in six holes playing alongside Johnson, making a 15-foot birdie on the last hole for a 66 to join Johnson and Jhonattan Vegas (65) atop the leaderboard. And then Spieth put together a stretch Friday afternoon reminiscent of his British Open victory, minus a shot from the driving range, in a 65.

Spieth began the back nine with five straight birdies, matching his longest birdie streak on the PGA Tour. It ended with a bogey on the par-3 15th when his tee shot rolled back into the water, but then he answered with a 40-foot birdie putt on 16.

Even without his best year with his best club, Spieth has won three times and cap- tured the third leg of the Grand Slam. But his putter doesn’t leave him for long.

“Putter has been streaky for me this summer, which is better than just kind of notso-great, which it was before that,” he said. “I got on the good side of the streak on the back nine today.”

Spieth made pars from the bunkers on the last two holes to join the others at 6-under 134.

He wasn’t alone in running off a string of birdies. Matt Kuchar looked as though he might miss the cut until his caddie encouraged him to try to get back to even par. Kuchar ran off four straight birdies and kept right on rolling, ending his round of 64 with eight birdies on the last 10 holes. Kuchar and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson (68) were one shot out of the lead.

Watson is at No. 113 in the Fed Ex Cup, and only the top 100 after The Northern Trust advance to the next playoff event at the TPC Boston. Watson says he won’t play the rest of the year once he is eliminated. A big finish this week could delay that another month.

Jon Rahm, who played with Johnson and Fowler, had a 68 and was two shots behind along with Justin Rose (68) and Russell Henley (72).

Seventy players made the cut at 2 over par. The cut ended the season of 13 players, a group that included Presidents Cup captain Steve Stricker and former PGA champion Jimmy Walker.