Shane Lowry is six shots off the lead in a tie for sixth going into the weekend at the Cognizant Classic, while Séamus Power is another stroke further back.
Both Irish contenders posted rounds of 67 on Friday around the the PGA National Champion Course to move onto five and four under respectively.
Lowry began on the front foot with birdies on the second and third holes before the Offaly man made further gains with another set of back-to-back birdies on nine and ten.
Another followed on 13 but that preluded a slip in momentum as he bogeyed 14 and 17. However, Lowry birdied the final hole to finish off a four-under round.
Power, meanwhile, only had one blemish on his scorecard, bogeying 17 like Lowry. However, the Waterford man had enjoyed a strong outing before then with birdies on the first, eighth, 10th, 11th and 13th. That leaves Power in a tie for 13th.
Leading the way is Austin Smotherman who will carry a three-stroke advantage into the weekend.
The American followed his opening 62 with a two-under 69 on Friday. That brought him to 11 under, comfortably clear of Taylor Moore, who is in second after his second straight four-under 67.
"Yeah, leading a PGA Tour event, come on, pretty awesome," Smotherman said.
Smotherman, 31, is in fine position for his first win on the PGA Tour since turning pro a decade ago. He has won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour, including last June.
Afterwards, he credited himself with playing "Austin Smotherman golf." When asked what that meant, he responded, "as boring and simple as it can be.
"That's what I want to do out there. I feel like I ball strike it good enough to have that kind of boring golf, a bunch of fairways ideally," he said.
He suffered three bogeys on Friday after a bogey-free opening round, but the key stretch for him after starting on the back nine was between 17 and three. He birdied four holes in that stretch, starting with a 54-foot bomb at the par-317th hole.
Moore overcame a bogey in each half of his round with three birdies on either nine, more than counter-balancing the rough patches to earn his second straight solid score.
Canadian AJ Ewart had the round of the day, a 64 that powered him to seven under for the week. He is tied with Colombia's Nico Echavarria (72), and Joel Dahmen is in fifth at six under after a second consecutive 68.
Additional reporting: Reuters
