Canadian Stephen Ames carded a 5-under-par 67 on Saturday to jump into the lead after two rounds at the Boeing Classic in Snoqualmie, Wash.
Ames sits at 10-under 134, one stroke ahead of New Zealand's Steven Alker and Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain. Alker posted a second-round 66, while Jimenez had a 67.
After sinking birdies on three of the first five holes, Ames had his first and only blemish of the day at the par-4 seventh, where he settled for bogey. But he followed with another birdie at the par-5 eighth before adding two more by the end of his round to take the lead.
"There are times, especially on this golf course, you tend to get a couple bounces that land by the flag and the first bounce is over," Ames said. "I guess that's the nature of poa annua, you're going to get some spots that are going to be firm and some spots that are going to be soft. I guess you're
going to have to take the good bounces with the bad bounces."
Alker peaked late after sitting at 1 under through his first 11 holes, collecting five birdies from Nos. 12-17. Jimenez turned in a bogey-free round, finishing with five birdies.
"Just stayed patient," Alker said about his round. "You've got to be like that around here. The greens, you know, they're tricky. And the wind was, it was stronger today. So it was just a matter of staying patient and kind of worked out in the end."
First-round co-leader Kevin Sutherland shot a 2-under 70 to drop into a tie for fourth with Tim O'Neal, whose 66 included seven birdies against one bogey. Tim Herron owns sole possession of sixth thanks to his 68.
Notah Begay III logged the low round of the day with a 7-under 65 to cruise 37 spots up the leaderboard into a tie for seventh with Dicky Pride (66 on Saturday) and Vijay Singh of Fiji (69).
Germany's Bernhard Langer, a two-time event champion, is T10 with South African Ernie Els (68) and Australian Richard Green (70) after his 70 on Saturday.
Woody Austin, Friday's other co-leader, dropped 16 spots due to a 3-over 75. He is now in a three-way tie for 17th.
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