Lingmerth ahead by 1 in Maryland

Potomac, MD – David Lingmerth carded his second straight 4- under 66 on Friday to grab a 1-shot lead with the second round of the Neediest Kids Championship suspended due to darkness.

Lingmerth, who has missed the cut in five of his last six starts, finished 36 holes at 8-under-par 132. The Swede is looking for his first tour win. He did finish second at the United Leasing Championship, which was one of his three top-10 finishes this season.

Josh Persons, who was one of three players to finish his first round earlier Friday, managed a 2-under 68 and shares second place with Brad Fritsch (66) at minus-7. Fritsch shared the lead after the second and third rounds last week before he took fourth place at the Chiquita Classic.

Tom Hoge (65) and Bronson La'Cassie (67) are tied for fourth at 6-under-par 134. Alistair Presnell (70) is alone in sixth at minus-5.

The second round will resume Saturday morning at 8 a.m. ET. The third round will have players going off in threesomes from the first and 10th tees starting at 9:45 a.m.

Lingmerth parred his first three holes before running off three consecutive birdies from the fourth. After a par on No. 7, he stumbled to a bogey on the eighth at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm.

The Swede converted back-to-back birdie efforts from the ninth, but faltered to a triple-bogey on the par-4 11th.

"The ball hit the fairway and then trickled into the first cut of rough. There was mud all over it. I couldn't even see the ball at first," Lingmerth said.

Lingmerth hit his second into the hazard right of the green.

"I don't know if it was the mud or it was me. The ball was sitting up in the hazard and I thought I could get it on the green. That stuff is tricky," Lingmerth stated. "My club just got stuck and the ball didn't go two feet. It went deep in the grass so I had to take a drop."

Lingmerth started his climb back towards the top of the leaderboard with birdies on 13 and 14. He birdied the 17th to get to minus-8 and parred the last to lead by one.

"I had it going today. I'm finally making some putts. I've been searching for it all year," Lingmerth said. "This week it's just been some small things in my set up. It's about hitting it from a comfortable spot and just trusting my stroke."

Persons started his second round with 12 consecutive pars. He ended that run with birdies on four and five. Persons closed his round with four more pars to end one back.

Fritsch tripped to a bogey on the second. He got that shot back with a birdie on the fifth, but he faltered to another bogey at the sixth.

After three pars in a row, Fritsch ran off three birdies in a 4-hole span from the 10th to jump to minus-5. The Canadian parred his next three holes before closing with birdies at 17 and 18.

First-round leader Jason Gore had five bogeys and a double-bogey in a round of 7-over 77. He tumbled into a share of 29th at even-par 140.

NOTES: The three players left on the course will not effect the cut line, which will fall at 2-over-par 142...Luke Guthrie, the tour's leading money winner, will miss the cut as will Will Mackenzie, Justin Hicks and Woody Austin.