US Tour: Five birdies in six holes from the 13th hole sent South Africa's Rory Sabbatini to the top of the leaderboard as the early finishers completed their second rounds in the Nissan Classic in Los Angeles yesterday.
Starting at the 10th Sabbatini dropped a shot at his first hole but birdied the 13th and then shot four-in-a-row from the 15th to reach the turn in 32.
Despite a dropped shot at the third, birdies at the first, eighth and ninth saw him back in 33 for a halfway total of 10-under-par 132.
Paul McGinley added a second successive round of 70 for a total of two-under-par 140 but Graeme McDowell will have his second weekend off after a disappointing 72 left him on three-over-par 145.
Meanwhile, first-round leader Justin Rose, one of the late starters in the second round, is in no doubt he has the game to win in America.
After an opening round of 64, one off his lowest scores in the States, Rose shared the first round lead with little-known American Dean Wilson.
Rose has slipped from a place in the world's top 40 to 86th since taking up US Tour membership two years ago. But what matters most to the 25-year-old are the improvements he feels he has made.
Asked about Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, two of his contemporaries who have both made it into the top-10, the Florida-based Rose said: "I rate myself every bit as good as them.
"Obviously results speak and there is no doubt those guys have done fantastically well. But if I look at it from an ability standpoint there is not much difference, you know."
The former amateur star, who finished an incredible fourth in the 1998 Open at 17 but on turning professional missed his first 21 cuts, won four times in 2002, but has not tasted success since.
Climbing into the world's top 50 in the next month would put that right, though, and it would also ignite his challenge for a Ryder Cup debut now that he has become eligible again by rejoining the European tour.
"Some people say 'why don't you come back to Europe and really give the Ryder Cup a full go?' But I feel I'm hopefully really on the verge of breaking through here," said Rose.
"I feel like I've put in the groundwork and it would make the last two years that I spent over here pointless to go back to Europe full-time."
He does not have to for the Ryder Cup. Five of the places come off the world rankings and most weeks there are more on offer in the States.
"For the last four or five months I've felt good enough to win at any time," he added. "I believe I need to win twice over here to get in the Ryder Cup and the quicker I can do that then the quicker I can go over to Europe and play."
Play suspended due to a dangerous weather situation with 84 players still to finish their second round. Play resumed last night at 11pm.
(Irish in bold, British unless stated, par 72, x denotes amateurs):
131 - David Park 67 64
132 - Thammanoon Srirot (Tha) 67 65, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 63
133 - Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 63
134 -John Bickerton 66 68, Charlie Wi (Kor) 66 68
135 - Keith Horne (Rsa) 68 67
136 - Chinnarat Phadungsil (Tha) 70 66,
137 - Danny Chia (Mal) 70 67, Paul Dwyer 71 66, Mikael Lundberg 68 69
138 - Adam Le Vesconte (Aus) 66 72, Simon Dyson 68 70, Graeme Storm 70 68, David Higgins 70 68, Sam Little 70 68, Steven O'Hara 72 66, Francois Delamontagne 68 70, Shaaban Hussein (Mal) 71 67
139 - Andrew Butterfield 69 70, Simon Wakefield 70 69, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 68, Scott Strange (Aus) 72 67, Alexandre Rocha 70 69
140 - Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 68, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 68 72, Amandeep Johl (Ind) 71 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 70, Leif Westerberg (Swe) 69 71
141 - Ted Oh (Kor) 72 69, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spn) 64 77, Benn Barham 73 68
142 - Maarten Lafebber (Ned) 70 72, Zhang Lian-wei (Chn) 70 72, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 72 70
143 - Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 71, Boonchu Ruangkit (Tha) 71 72, Angelo Que (Phi) 69 74, Eddie Lee (Nzl) 73 70, Richard Lee (Nzl) 75 68, Ben Leong (Mal) 75 68
144 Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 71 73, Yasin Ali 72 72, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 69 75, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 74 70
145 - Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 75, Sam Torrance 72 73, Ron Won (USA) 71 74, Edward Loar (USA) 74 71, Chris Rodgers 75 70, Kyi Hla Han 73 72
146 - Jason Dawes (Aus) 71 75, Rick Gibson (Can) 72 74, Gary Emerson 70 76, Rahil Gangjee (Ind) 73 73, Iain Pyman 75 71
147 - Rashid Ismail (Mal) 75 72, Adam Groom (Aus) 77 70, Michael Hoey 72 75
149 - Steven Tan (Mal) 76 73 Shaifubari Muda (Mal) 78 71 151 - Richard Moir (Aus) 76 75 153 Huk Suk-Ho (Kor) 75 78, Nathan Hauser (Aus) 77 76.
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