American veteran Jim Furyk stormed up the leaderboard as Australia’s hopes faded badly after the second round of the US PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club.
Furyk was on track for a record score before a few late stumbles left him with a six-under-par 64, still good enough to fashion a one-shot lead at seven-under-par 133.
Englishman Justin Rose (68) was second alone at six-under while Masters champion Bubba Watson (66) and fellow American Bo Van Pelt (68) shared third two off the pace.
“It was obviously a fun day,” Furyk said.
“To be able to write three on your card nine times in the first 11 holes was a lot of fun.
“I struggled to kind of keep that momentum going the last six holes, but I feel like I played a real solid round of golf.”
Australian Adam Scott, who started just two shots off the lead and in the tournament up to his eyeballs, shot a disappointing 73 to fall to one-over 141, a distant eight shots back in a tie for 22nd.
It left John Senden as the leading Australian, who carded a 68 to move to even par 140, but seven off the pace with two days to play.
While Furyk ripped apart the front nine with six birdies for a 29, including starting his round with seven straight three’s on the scorecard, Scott plummeted the other way.
“I was very average today out there. I started average, continued average and my putting was average at best,” Scott lamented.
“I didn’t make anything today, nothing went in of any length. I was just off today. I just felt a bit flat, it was one of those days.”
The Queenslander opened with two pars before finding deep rough and tree trouble off the tee on the third.
His punch out remained in the rough and he missed a long putt to save par.
It appeared he may turn around his fortunes on the difficult fifth hole after hitting a magic approach to eight feet but just as he pulled the putter head back the shadow of a bird overhead appeared to cause a slight flinch and the putt pulled left.
“Yeah, it got me,” Scott confirmed.
“It was a bit of a flinchy thing. If I made that one perhaps I feel better knowing I’ve got plenty of holes left but I didn’t make it and never started any momentum.”
It started a poor run as Scott then bogeyed the sixth and seventh holes after imprecise tee shots and missed another makeable birdie putt from close on the eighth.
Senden’s three birdies came with impressive long putts on the fourth, sixth and 11th holes and his only blemish came on the last when his par effort from 16 feet hung on the lip without falling in.
“I made a few long putts which is nice but it came from striking it better and giving myself more chances,” Senden said.
“I would’ve liked to nail the two par fives to make it a really good day but that wasn’t to be.”
Overnight leader Tiger Woods also fell down the board into a tie for 12th after matching Scott’s 73 while Rory McIlroy scratched together a 68 to be four back and tied seventh, still projected to win the FedEx Cup and the $US10 million ($A9.63 million) bonus.