England's Aaron Rai made two consecutive birdies to move into a tie for the lead with American Akshay Bhatia in the second round of the Rocket Mortgage Classic on the PGA Tour on Friday.
Rai, a two-time DP World Tour champion who is chasing his first PGA title, shot a 7-under 65 for a 13-under 131 total after 36 holes at Detroit Golf Club.
That put the 29-year-old from Wolverhampton level with Bhatia, who shot 67 to take his week total to 131 without a bogey.
“Felt like I drove it pretty well,” Rai said. “Hit a lot of good approach shots. Felt like I hit a lot of greens. I gave myself a lot of chances and was happy to finish out the way I did on 17 and 18.”
Rai holed a five-foot birdie putt on the third and par-3 11th holes and made three straight birdies on the front nine.
He teed up the par-5 17th in two shots to set himself up for an easy birdie, then holed a birdie putt from 20 feet outside the hole on the 18th to grab the halfway lead.
“It was a good run,” Rai said. “It was played well from tee to green. It was nice to see a few putts go in the last few days.
“It definitely made me feel more confident on the greens the last few days, which made a big difference.”
Americans Troy Merritt, Cameron Young and Tyler Montgomerie tied for third with South Africa's Eric van Rooyen at 131.
Bhatia won two PGA titles via play-offs at the Barracuda Championship last July and the Texas Open last April.
Bhatia led the way on the back nine, holed a three-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole, then a birdie putt from just over 30 feet on the par-3 15th.
He holed two birdie putts from 4 feet on the 18th and 3 feet on the first hole, then tapped in for birdie on the par-5 seventh hole after reaching the green in two shots.
“It’s great to get the result we did today,” Bhatia said. “It was fun to compete.”
His craziest shot of the day came on the 17th hole when his ball rolled into a small drainage hole.
“That's crazy. No, I've never seen it. The umpires have never seen it, so there's a one in a million chance that the ball went into that little hole in the gutter, so that's hilarious,” Bhatia said. “That was hilarious.”
American Joe Highsmith, who had missed the cut in his past five PGA events, had a hole-in-one on the fifth hole, his 14th of the round. He shot 64 and finished at 135.
American Neal Shipley, the lowest-scoring amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open, shot 135 in his professional debut.
Miles Russell, a 15-year-old American amateur, played in his first PGA Tour event and failed to qualify with scores of 74 and 70.
