San Antonio, TX – Ben Curtis posted his second straight five- under 67 on Friday to grab a two-shot lead at the Texas Open with the second round suspended by darkness.
Curtis finished 36 holes at 10-under-par 134 on the AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio. The 2003 British Open champion is searching for his first PGA Tour title since winning twice in the 2006 season.
David Mathis also carded a 67 in round two and is alone in second place at minus-eight. Cameron Tringale fired a seven-under 65 to jump into third at minus-seven. First-round leader Matt Every birdied 14 and 16 before play was stopped for the day to move back to minus-seven.
Ryan Palmer (69), Blake Adams (69) and Hunter Haas (74) share fifth place at four-under-par 140.
There was a 1-hour, 50-minute weather delay on Friday and that pushed the completion of round two into Saturday morning. Twenty-two players will resume their second rounds at 8:30 a.m. (ET).
Curtis started his bogey-free round on the back nine Friday. He holed a birdie effort from off the green on No. 11 and made it two in a row with a seven-foot birdie putt at the 12th.
After a pair of pars, Curtis again made back-to-back birdies. He rolled in a nine-footer at 15 and a 20-foot birdie try at 16.
The former Open champion cruised to four consecutive pars around the turn. At the par-three third, Curtis just missed the green, but was inside 20 feet from the hole. He drained his third for birdie to get to 10-under.
Curtis parred his final six holes to gab his sixth 36-hole lead on the PGA Tour.
"The key around here is if you can drive it straight, keep it in the fairway, give yourself a chance to get at some of these pins, you know, with the slope of the greens and stuff like that, it makes it a lot easier from the fairway," Curtis stated. "I did that. Hit a lot of good iron shots. Left them, for the most part, on the right level and made a few putts. It was a pretty easy round."
Curtis made it sound pretty easy, but it has been a struggle for him this year. This is his fourth PGA Tour event. He has missed two cuts and tied for 14th in Puerto Rico.
Mathis also started on the 10th tee Friday. He got up and down for birdie on the par-five 14th and rolled in a birdie effort from the fringe on No. 18 to make the turn at five-under.
The 36-year-old Mathis, who has two Nationwide Tour wins, stumbled to a bogey on the first. He came right back with a three-foot birdie putt on the second and a 15-footer for birdie on the third.
Mathis ran home a 32-foot birdie putt on the fifth and made it two in a row again as he sank a birdie try from off the green at the sixth. He parred the final three holes to end two behind Curtis.
"When you look at my results, it's like man he's playing awful, but that hasn't been the case," said Mathis, who has missed the cut in nine of his first 10 events this year. "It's just been a shot here or a shot there and before you know it you miss the cut."
NOTES: Curtis has won two of the previous five times he owned at least a piece of the 36-hole lead...The cut line will likely fall at four-over-par 148 with Jason Gore, Woody Austin, K.J. Choi, Lee Janzen and Stuart Appleby among those missing the cut.
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