Toms surges into the lead

David Toms thanked a flying start for his surge up the leaderboard after the 40-year-old carded a five-under-par 65 to move into a tie for the lead at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

Starting on the back nine, Toms picked up strokes in his first three holes and another at the 16th before an eagle two at the second was tarnished by a bogey at the seventh.

It still proved to be the joint-lowest round of the day and was enough to move a shot clear of the field alongside Jay Williamson on eight-under-par at the halfway stage.

"The key to my round was getting off to a good start," Toms said. "Those first few holes, if you make a couple of bogeys and get it going the other way, it can be one of those days where you're just fighting to make the cut.

"I birdied the first three holes and it set me up for a good day.

"Four-under through my first nine holes with the wind howling was pretty good. It was a great nine holes of golf."

Padraig Harrington will be competing at the weekend after a 68 brought him to one under, but Darren Clarke woeful form continued as the Ulsterman shot a 74 left him six-over-par.

Williamson birdied the final two holes to record a second-consecutive round of 66 at the TPC River Highlands.

However, he was not getting ahead of himself going into the weekend having only played in one PGA tournament this year, when he missed the cut at the Honda Classic in March.

"It's Friday afternoon," he said. "A lot can happen. I've been in situations out here where I've had chances to win and haven't been able to do it.

"If my putter holds up and I keep the ball below the hole and in the fairway, I'll be all right for the next couple of days.  If I don't do that, then I won't play very well."

First-round leader Hunter Mahan is still only a shot back in second place despite enduring a difficult day that resulted in a one-over-par effort of 71.

"The wind affected my round a little bit for sure," Mahan said. "It's a bit gusty out there. It makes going after pins tougher, it's harder to get your distance and the control is tough.

"It's a little uncomfortable.There's a lot of right-to-left and left-to-right winds too. It's not a whole lot of in and down, so it makes it tougher."

Chris DiMarco, who was chasing Mahan after shooting a 64 over his opening 18 holes, registered four bogeys in his level-par 70 and fell into a fourth-place tie with Charles Warren and Olin Browne on six under par. Browne benefited from back-to-back eagles on the 12th and 13th to shoot a three under 67.

"From looking at my stats, I've gotten my eagles for the year out of the way apparently." joked Browne "On 12, I hit one of those shots that you hit once a year where it just comes off perfectly, just like it was planned.

"Everyone is yelling 'go in,' and usually it ends up two to three feet behind the hole and you think 'man, that was close,' but this one dropped and got me going"

Fred Funk matched Toms' five under par round to move into a five-way tie for seventh place.

Funk posted six birdies, including three in the first four holes, before bogeying the last but was still happy with his day's work.

"With the conditions, it was just good to shoot anything under par or around par today," Funk said. "It was blustery and the different weather conditions we had. We had a little bit of everything."

Funk is level with Steve Marino, Tom Lehman, Michael Allen and Michael Sim.