Russell Henley will take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the McGladrey Classic in Georgia following a superb second round of 63.
The 25-year-old American, who has two PGA Tour titles to his name, had a poor start to his round as he bogeyed his opening hole - the par-four 10th.
However, birdies on the 14th, 16th and 18th saw Georgia-born Henley reach the turn in two under and he continued that form on the front nine, picking up shots on the first and then four more in his final five holes.
"I definitely wasn't thinking 63," Henley said on www.pgatour.com.
"After the first hole I was just thinking 'all right, you got to hang in there and just be patient and hopefully get something going."'
That late birdie blitz left Henley on seven under for the round and nine under for the tournament, one shot clear of three players on eight under at Sea Island.
Padraig Harrington was the only Irish representative at the event but missed the cut after rounds of 71 and 73 left him four shot away from the cut-off point.
One of them is Zimbabwe's Brendon de Jonge, who had earlier set the best round of the week with his 64, moving to the top of the leaderboard in the process, before he was overtaken by Henley.
Alongside De Jonge are Brian Harman, the home favourite who held a share of the lead after day one, and his fellow American Andrew Svoboda, who carded rounds of 67 and 66 respectively on Friday.
Will MacKenzie, who was joint overnight pacesetter alongside Harman, Michael Thompson, Erik Compton, was one of three players on seven under, with Mark Wilson and Fabian Gomez.
The European challenge is led by Swedish duo David Lingmerth and Carl Pettersson, who are both five under after recording rounds of 67, while the top Britons were England's Brian Davis and Scotland's Martin Laird back on one under.
Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington suffered an early exit, though, after a 73 left him four over, with the cut coming at level par.
