Martin Laird put an end to a run of three missed cuts and is well in contention after two rounds of the Wells Fargo Championship in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina.
Laird showed his fondness for the course located just 45 minutes from his summer residence to add a two-under-par 70 to his opening 69 on the Quail Hollow course.
It put the Scot in a clubhouse share of fifth place and only four strokes behind American Martin Flores (68) who was leading the $6.9m event on nine under par. Reigning US Open champion Justin Rose grabbed an eagle and four birdies in a score of 67 to make it to eight under par as he looks to win for a first time since his Merion success last year.
Laird decorated his round with an eagle for the second day running, and on this occasion holed a 20-yard chip shot at the par-five fifth hole, a day after eagling the par-five 15th.
"I had hit my best shot all day to 10 feet for birdie at the fourth which is the hardest hole on the course, so that gave me a nice feeling going down the fifth," he said. "I just love playing this golf course as it's only about 45 minutes from home and, while I don't come down and play it very often, I just love it when I am here.
"That's why we moved to the Charlotte area. I just love the region and also to be able to stay at home for the week makes it a little more relaxing, and it's nice to wake up in your own house and drive to the golf course as opposed to staying in hotel. So there is a definite home feeling for me."
A four-under round of 68, meanwhile, was enough for Panuphol Pittayarat to retain a one-stroke lead after two rounds of The Championship at Laguna National. The Thai player could not match his heroics of the opening day, but kept his nose in front of the chasing pack, David Lipsky, Felipe Aguilar and Scott Hend, all of whom lie poised a shot back on 12 under.
Scott Jamieson slipped from a share of second to a five-way tie for 10th after following his first day 64 with a 71. The 30-year-old Glaswegian had a mixed round including five bogeys, four birdies and a redemptive eagle at the par-five 15th.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article