Charlie Wi seized a three-shot lead at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, following his tournament record nine-under 61 on Thursday with a three-under 69 in the second round.
The 40-year-old South Korean began the day tied for the lead with two others, including New Zealand youngster Danny Lee, and he picked up in the second round right where he left off.
“I have some experience playing with the lead,” Wi said.
“I took the approach today by telling myself that this is just a new day and whatever happened yesterday that I was going to put it behind me and just start fresh.”
After his red-hot performance on the par-70 Monterey Peninsula course on Thursday, Wi played the par-72 Pebble Beach Links course on Friday.
He birdied two of his first six holes and had an eagle on the back nine to reach a 36-hole total of 12-under 130.
He was three strokes ahead of American Dustin Johnson who shared the first-round lead in relation to par with Wi and Lee.
Johnson is alone in second after shooting an even-par 72 on Spyglass Hill, while fell back in a tie for third after shooting one over par to be eight under for the tournament.
He now sits alongside Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh of Fiji, Brian Gay and Brendon Todd were all tied at eight-under.
Johnson won back to back titles at Pebble Beach in 2009 and 2010 and is bidding to become the fifth player to have three or more victories at Pebble Beach.
“It played really hard coming in because we played in a mist,” Johnson said. “I played well on the front, but I gave away some shots on 11 and 16.”
Tiger Woods kept pace but didn’t gain any real ground on the leaders with his two-under 68 on the Monterey Peninsula layout, considered the easiest of the three courses in the rotation.
Woods, who shot a 68 at Spyglass on Thursday, was tied for 17th, six strokes adrift of Wi. Woods still feels he left something out there.
“I hit it well I just didn’t give myself exact right looks today,” said Woods. “I was above the hole or had some downhill breaking putts. With the greens getting bumpy you just have to be aggressive.”
Woods said he hurt a joint on his wrist on a tricky fairway shot out of a divot on the eighth hole.
“Once I popped it back in it was good. Just a joint, no big deal,” Woods said. “I was in a divot on an uphill slope and it was a tough combo.”
Australia’s Steve Elkington and South Korea’s Sunghoon Kang withdrew on Friday with injuries.