Rory McIlroy continued to put his recent woes behind him by taking the 36-hole lead at the St Jude Classic in Memphis.
McIlroy, who will defend his US Open title in San Francisco next week, came into the event on the back of three straight missed cuts but opened with a solid round of 68 at TPC Southwind.
And the Northern Irishman shot a five-under second round of 65 to go a shot clear on top of the leaderboard at seven under.
A chasing pack of three are one shot behind, American trio JB Holmes, Jeff Maggert and Kevin Stadler locked together on six under.
McIlroy parred the opening hole and then picked up a birdie on the second before carding an eagle three on the third.
Six straight pars followed to complete an outward half of 32 and keep the world number two right in contention.
His form was a mixed bag after the turn, with another birdie at 11 before back-to-back bogies at the next two holes.
But while the could have derailed him, the 23-year-old responded in perfect fashion, picking up shots in three of the last four holes to end on a high.
Speaking after his round, McIlroy told the PGA Tour's official website: "I hit a lot of good iron shots today. I feel like my ball striking is coming back to me.
"I saw some positive signs out there, so I'm just happy with how I played. I held two good putts on 17 and 18, which was nice. I'm happy with how I'm playing and with how I'm controlling the golf ball."
Holmes' 64 was the round of the day.
He shot up 26 places in the standings as he followed a middling 70 on day one with an at-times inspired effort.
The front nine were particularly productive, with six birdies including a hot streak between holes five and nine.
He was par for the back nine, with a birdie and a bogey cancelling each other out.
Previous leader Maggert enjoyed a reasonably sedate day, signing for a 68 after three birdies and a bogey.
Irishman Padraig Harrington was the next best European in the field, ending in a four-way tie for eighth after shooting 68 for the second day in a row to close three off the lead.
Zach Johnson was a high-profile faller, missing the cut on four over par, while McIlroy's fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, a former US Open champion, was also heading home after a grim 75.
Collated second round scores & totals in the USPGA Tour FedEx St Jude Classic, TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 70):
133 Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 68 65
134 Kevin Stadler 69 65, Jeff Maggert 66 68, J.B. Holmes 70 64
135 Chad Campbell 68 67, John Merrick 66 69, Kevin Kisner 69 66
136 Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 67 69, Davis Love III 68 68, Ken Duke 68 68, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 68 68
137 John Daly 68 69, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 72 65, Boo Weekley 70 67, John Peterson 72 65, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 70 67, J.J Killeen 68 69
138 Dustin Johnson 70 68, Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 70, Paul Stankowski 69 69, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 72 66
139 Brendon De Jonge 71 68, Jeff Overton 67 72, Robert Garrigus 74 65, Bill Lunde 71 68, Greg Owen (Eng) 72 67, Lee Janzen 68 71, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 72 67, Danny Lee (Nzl) 69 70, Sean O'Hair 70 69, Troy Kelly 68 71, Shane Bertsch 71 68, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 68 71
140 Zack Miller 70 70, Dustin Morris 71 69, Woody Austin 72 68, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 74 66, Chris Couch 70 70, Charles Howell III 69 71, Bob Estes 72 68, Duffy Waldorf 71 69, Craig Barlow 72 68, Ryan Palmer 74 66, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 72 68, Kent Jones 72 68, Bryce Molder 69 71, Luke Guthrie 69 71, William McGirt 71 69, George McNeill 72 68, Matt Mcquillan (Can) 71 69, Tim Clark (Rsa) 69 71
141 Robert Gamez 72 69, Patrick Sheehan 71 70, Chris Riley 70 71, Kyle Stanley 71 70, Gary Christian (Eng) 70 71, David Hearn (Can) 72 69, J J Henry 67 74, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 67 74, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 69 72, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 70 71, Shaun Micheel 71 70, Roberto Castro 73 68, Billy Horschel 72 69
142 Martin Flores 72 70, Omar Uresti 70 72, Bart Bryant 72 70, Neal Lancaster 72 70, Jonathan Fly 78 64, Gavin Coles (Aus) 70 72, Will Claxton 72 70, Cameron Beckman 72 70, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 70, Brett Wetterich 71 71, Troy Matteson 70 72, Tommy Gainey 72 70
Missed the cut:
143 Spencer Levin 71 72, Scott Stallings 73 70, Kyle Thompson 70 73, Garrett Willis 74 69, Steve Wheatcroft 71 72, Mark Anderson 73 70, Joe Durant 72 71, Richard H. Lee 74 69, Hunter Haas 72 71, Camilo Villegas (Col) 74 69, Marc Turnesa 75 68, Skip Kendall 69 74, Stephen Ames (Can) 73 70
144 Zach Johnson 73 71, Heath Slocum 72 72, Jamie Lovemark 74 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 72, Nathan Green (Aus) 71 73, Ted Potter, Jr. 73 71, Roland Thatcher 71 73, Robert Damron 76 68, Kyle Reifers 72 72, Jason Bohn 70 74
145 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 72 73, Tim Herron 73 72, Brendon Todd 77 68, Miguel Angel Carballo (Arg) 72 73, Steve Flesch 70 75, Joe Ogilvie 70 75
146 Jason Kokrak 74 72, Cody Proveaux 75 71, Brian Harman 76 70, Kelly Kraft 71 75, David Duval 75 71, Matthew Jones (Aus) 73 73, Justin Leonard 74 72, Tim Petrovic 70 76, Jimmy Walker 75 71, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 72 74, Tommy Biershenk 77 69, Patrick Reed 78 68, Frank Lickliter II 73 73
147 Francis Quinn 76 71, Will MacKenzie 75 72, Brian Gay 72 75, Ted Purdy 75 72, Rich Beem 73 74, Charlie Beljan 78 69
148 Scott Dunlap 75 73, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 75 73, Sung Kang (Kor) 71 77, Billy Hurley III 73 75, Austin Gutgsell 73 75, John Rollins 73 75, Dicky Pride 75 73, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 73, Joey Snyder III 75 73, Russell Knox (Sco) 78 70
149 Chris Kirk 78 71, Hank Kuehne 76 73, Stephen Gangluff 77 72, Bobby Gates 78 71, David Toms 74 75, Derek Lamely 74 75
150 Vaughn Taylor 74 76, Marco Dawson 72 78, Chris Di Marco 74 76, Josh Teater 73 77, Edward Loar 71 79
151 Todd Hamilton 77 74, Harrison Frazar 80 71, Scott Verplank 74 77
152 Audie Johnson 74 78
153 Scott Brown 74 79, D.J. Trahan 74 79, Peter Lonard (Aus) 76 77
WD: Jason Gore 77, Kris Blanks 78, Matt Bettencourt 80
