Lucas Glover shot a 68 on Friday to maintain a two-shot lead at the Barbasol Championship in Nicholasville, Ky.
At 13-under 131 through two days at Keene Trace Golf Club, Glover has a comfortable but not insurmountable margin over Adam Long (67 Friday), Sweden's Vincent Norrman (67) and England's Daniel Brown (68).
After a torrid 63 put him atop the leaderboard after one round, Glover had more work to do Friday. Starting on the back nine, he had 11 pars and two birdies through his first 13 holes before collecting three birdies and his lone bogey of the day over the final five.
"It was a little scrappy today, but hung in there, got around through 4 and knew I had a couple par-5s I could to get to and just said, ‘Let's just grind this out,' and I did," Glover said. "Pleased with the end result."
The former U.S. Open champion, now 43, has four career wins on the PGA Tour. He went 10 years between his last two wins (2011 and 2021).
Friday marked his 10th straight round on tour in the 60s.
"This time of year on tour when it's warm, scores usually get low because things get soft, especially the greens, so you know automatically you've got to be more aggressive," Glover said.
Long and Norrman each got to 67 by carding seven birdies and two bogeys, while Brown had six and two, respectively. Norrman and Brown have yet to win on the PGA Tour, but Long had his breakthrough on tour when he won the 2019 Desert Classic.
"Going up against some of the best players in the world here, so going to have to keep the pedal down, make a lot of birdies and keep attacking," said Long, who added that he is playing through neck pain.
The Barbasol is staged as an alternate event opposite the Genesis Scottish Open, where most of the best players in the world are tuning up for next week's Open Championship.
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