Argentina’s Andres Romero fired his second consecutive seven-under par 65 on Friday to grab a one-stroke lead after the second round of the $US3.5 million ($A3.43 million) US PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open.
Romero, who shared the lead with Australian Cameron Percy when the day began, was on 14-under after 36 holes, one shot ahead of American Scott Brown with US rivals Peter Uihlein and Steve LeBrun on 12-under and Argentina’s Fabian Gomez fifth at 11-under.
With 65 of the tour’s top players at the World Golf Championships event at Doral in Miami this week, the Puerto Rico event offers a title chance to some of the PGA’s unheralded standouts.
Romero, whose only PGA title came in 2008 at New Orleans, birdied the par-5 second, par-4 third and par-5 fifth holes but a double bogey at the par-3 eighth sent him tumbling back down the leaderboard.
The 31-year-old South American responded with starting the back nine with back-to-back birdies, added another at 13, then had back-to-back birdies at the par-5 15th and par-3 16th before closing with a birdie at the par-5 18th.
Brown birdied three of the last four holes after a bogey at 14 to fire a 63 and move into second place. He birdied the second and fifth, then eagled the par-4 seventh before starting a run of three birdies in a row at the eighth.
Percy fired a 70 to stand five strokes off the pace.