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Stiles leads at Buick halfway

01/07/2006

America's Darron Stiles has established a one shot lead at the halfway stage of the Buick Invitational in Connecticut.

Stiles carded a four-under par 66 to climb above joint overnight leader Peter Lonard of Australia.

The American held a similar position at halfway last week and he insists that he wants to close out his first win on the PGA Tour after slipping back.

"I think in Memphis I got ahead of myself and my brain so since then I've realised that you really can't do that," Stiles said.

"I'm not playing those guys. I'm playing the golf course, and whoever beats the golf course the best over those 36 holes is going to win."

After starting one shot behind the four-way tie for the lead, Stiles began slowly with a birdie at the 13th and a bogey at the 18th.

However, a run of three birdies between the first and third holes and one on the ninth allowed him to edge to the top of the leaderboard.

Lonard had a fairly solid round himself, claiming three birdies and a bogey on his way to a two-under par 68.

He, in turn, is one shot ahead of an American quartet which includes Todd Fischer, Scott Verplank, Stewart Cink and Notah Begay III, the 2000 winner of this event.

However, the European challenge faded very quickly on day two.

The leading player is Sweden's Carl Pettersson, who dropped a shot in his second round and now sits at three-under.

Fellow Swede Mathias Gronberg followed his compatriot with a one-over par 71 and just made the cut, along with England's Brian Davis, and both now sit at level-par.

One man who didn't make the cut was England's Justin Rose, who just missed out after a level-par 70 left him at one-over for the tournament.

He had an eventful round though, making four birdies and four bogeys.

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