Sam Burns overcame an early double bogey to take a two-shot lead into the third round of the Safeway Open in California.
The American entered Friday’s round trailing Scot Russell Knox by a stroke, but his attempt to chase Knox down got off to a disastrous start when he found the water on the 11th.
But after settling for a double bogey, Burns immediately clicked into gear — carding five birdies through the rest of the back nine.
He carried this momentum into the front nine, picking up another four birdies and an eagle — along with one bogey — to post a seven-under 65.
Two strokes back from Burns on 15 under is fellow American Harry Higgs, who shot a closing albatross for a second round of 62.
Knox finished Friday’s round tied for third on 12 under, alongside Australian Cameron Percy and American DJ Trahan.
Ireland's Shane Lowry failed to build on his first round 68 and missed the five under par cut after going one over on Friday. His sole birdie was on the ninth hole, with bogeys on the third and 12th, leaving him three under par overall.
Meanwhile Séamus Power also missed the cut after following up Thursday’s nightmare round of 75 - which included a run of four successive bogeys from the 12th - with a one under par 71 to leave him two over par overall. He bogeyed three of four holes from the 11th this time around, on a disappointing day for the Irish in California.
Collated second round scores and totals (USA unless stated, par 72):
129 Sam Burns 64 65
131 Harry Higgs 69 62
132 Russell Knox (Sco) 63 69, Cameron Percy (Aus) 64 68, D.J. Trahan 67 65
133 James Hahn 68 65, Doug Ghim 67 66
134 Brian Stuard 67 67, Pat Perez 65 69, Rob Oppenheim 68 66, Tom Hoge 66 68
135 Kristoffer Ventura (Nor) 69 66, Ricky Barnes 69 66, Brendan Steele 65 70, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 70 65, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 67 68
136 Bud Cauley 68 68, Sepp Straka (Aut) 70 66, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 68, Lucas Glover 69 67, MJ Daffue (Rsa) 71 65, Bol Hoag 64 72, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 69 67, Ben Taylor (Eng) 69 67, Scott Harrington 66 70
137 Nick Watney 72 65, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 69 68, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 67 70, Jason Dufner 70 67, Stewart Cink 67 70, Chesson Hadley 70 67, Nelson Lauta Ledesma (Arg) 69 68, Mark Anderson 68 69
138 Andrew Putnam 70 68, Charley Hoffman 67 71, Harold Varner III 67 71, Hudson Swafford 70 68, David Hearn (Can) 69 69, Jamie Lovemark 69 69, Chez Reavie 67 71, J.J. Spaun 70 68, Beau Hossler 73 65, Michael Gligic (Can) 70 68, William McGirt 69 69, Kevin Streelman 72 66, Phil Mickelson 71 67, J.B. Holmes 70 68, Jim Furyk 72 66, Andy Zhang (Chn) 66 72, Ryan Blaum 71 67, Jonathan Byrd 69 69, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 70 68, Akshay Bhatia 66 72
139 Adam Schenk 68 71, Vincent Whaley 69 70, Rhein Gibson (Aus) 73 66, Austin Cook 68 71, Brandon Hagy 69 70, Branden Grace (Rsa) 68 71, Doc Redman 70 69, Isaiah Salinda 71 68, Patrick Rodgers 67 72, Brice Garnett 69 70, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 74 65, Will Gordon 72 67, Luke List 70 69, Kyle Stanley 70 69, Joohyung Kim (Kor) 67 72, Kevin Chappell 69 70, Cameron Davis (Aus) 71 68, Sahith Theegala 71 68, Joel Dahmen 71 68, Cheng-Tsung Pan (Tai) 69 70
The following players missed the cut:
140 Chris Stroud 70 70, Roger Sloan (Can) 73 67, Christopher Baker 70 70, Keegan Bradley 68 72, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 72 68, Grayson Murray 73 67, Maverick McNealy 69 71, Ted Potter, Jr. 72 68
Sean O’Hair 69 71, Wesley Bryan 68 72, Zac Blair 68 72, Josh Teater 71 69
141 Peter Malnati 71 70, Wes Roach 72 69, Mark Hubbard 68 73, Zack Sucher 73 68, Chase Seiffert 70 71, Denny McCarthy 69 72, Hank Lebioda 71 70, Shintaro Ban 70 71, Shane Lowry (Irl) 68 73, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 69, Ryan Brehm 74 67, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 70 71, Camilo Villegas (Col) 72 69, Troy Merritt 75 66, Cameron Tringale 70 71
142 Sebastian Cappelen (Den) 72 70, Rafael Campos (Dom) 70 72, Wyndham Clark 69 73, Talor Gooch 69 73, Bill Haas 73 69, Kevin Tway 70 72, Michael Gellerman 69 73
143 Scott Brown 74 69, Sam Ryder 71 72, Matthew NeSmith 72 71, Scott Piercy 71 72, Kyoung-hoon Lee (Kor) 74 69, Peter Uihlein 72 71, Martin Laird (Sco) 68 75, Ryan Armour 71 72, Patton Kizzire 72 71, Brandt Snedeker 73 70, Jordan Spieth 73 70
144 Robby Shelton 73 71, Scott Stallings 71 73, Tyler McCumber 73 71, Robert Streb 74 70, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 74, Martin Trainer 71 73, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 74 70, Johnson Wagner 72 72, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 74 70
145 Jim Knous 69 76, Aaron Wise 72 73, Dominic Bozzelli 74 71, Tyler Duncan 72 73
146 Henrik Norlander (Swe) 75 71, John Senden (Aus) 72 74, Michael Kim 76 70, Seamus Power (Irl) 75 71, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 77 69
147 Luke Schniederjans 74 73, Matt Every 74 73, Kelly Kraft 74 73, Alex Cejka (Ger) 73 74, Hunter Mahan 73 74, George McNeill 72 75, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 71 76, Roberto Castro 76 71, Joseph Bramlett 75 72
148 Luke Donald (Eng) 78 70, Nate Lashley 75 73
149 Kramer Hickok 73 76, Graham DeLaet (Can) 74 75
150 DA Points 74 76, Shawn Stefani 77 73
152 Brian Gay 77 75
153 Peter Kuest 76 77, Steve Watanabe, Jr 75 78
156 Chad Campbell 75 81, Parker McLachlin 78 78
