Padraig Harrington carded a five under par 67 in the second round at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am to lie at eight under par for the tournament, two strokes behind the leading pack.
A group of six players are tied for the lead on ten under par, with defending champion Dustin Johnson amongst them.
Overnight leader Johnson surrendered a one-stroke advantage with a bogey on the 17th to fall back into the chasing pack.
The American now jostles for space at the top of the leaderboard with compatriots Bryce Molder, Paul Goydos and JB Holmes, along with Germany's Alex Cejka and Australian Matt Jones.
David Duval is one stroke back on nine under par.
Johnson, who had three birdies, including one on the 13th to take the lead on 11-under, was pleased to have had only the one dropped shot.
Johnson confessed: ‘I struggled a little bit today on the putting green. Other than that I'm hitting it very well. I'm very comfortable where I'm at.’
‘I got off to a kind of a rocky start, but made some good pars,’ he said. ‘Then I started hitting it better coming around the last few holes. I had a bunch of opportunities and made a couple of birdies.’
Johnson will play his third round at Spyglass Hill, considered the toughest of the three golf courses used in the rotation.
‘I like Spy, fits my eye well,’ Johnson said. ‘I played a few rounds there, so I'm comfortable with all the holes.’
Goydos played his second round at Spyglass and had the best round of the day of the leaders, a seven-under 65.
It marked the American's first sub-70 round at the course in 14 appearances at the event.
Goydos, named an assistant Ryder Cup captain by Corey Pavin, has set a goal to play well enough to get on the team. A strong finish here would get him closer.
‘Obviously you set goals,’ Goydos said. ‘You should have different levels of goal-setting throughout the year.’
Duval was also among the leaders for a brief period, reaching 10-under with a birdie on the sixteenth at Pebble Beach. He fell back to nine-under after a bogey on the par-three 17th.
‘I'm hitting the ball mostly pretty good,’ said Duval, who has been battling back spasms. ‘Had to shake a few putts in on these greens and not got much trouble, so kind of the recipe you need to have out here.’
The former world number one has now notched together two sub-par rounds, only the fourth time in the last 24 events. On the three previous occasions, Duval struggled to take the form into the final two rounds, his highest finish a tie for 59th.
‘I had been working myself to try to pay a little more attention to what I'm doing on the easier golf courses,’ Duval said. ‘I just think I hadn't paid enough attention to targets and picking out my spots.’
