Dunlap leads by three at halfway point in Panama

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PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Scott Dunlap called his first two rounds at the Panama Movistar Championship "tidy golf." The 44-year old veteran hasn't ventured too far off the fairways or the greens, made some short par putts when he needed them and rolled in a birdie putt now and then.

Scott Dunlap excelled on a tough day for scoring. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

Inside the Numbers

Dunlap thru 36 Holes

Category Total Rank Eagles 0 N/A Birdies 11 1 Pars 21 T80 Bogeys 4 T122 Double Bogeys 0 N/A Other 0 N/A

As a result, Dunlap stands atop the leaderboard at the halfway point of the first stop on the Nationwide Tour's 30-tournament schedule for 2008.

Dunlap posted a 2-under-par 68 Friday at the Panama Golf Club and is at 7-under 133 through 36 holes, three shots better than Arjun Atwal (66). Ben Bates (71), Chris Smith (70) and first-round leader Jeff Klauk (73) are four shots back in third place. Bill Lunde (70) is at 2 under par and alone in sixth place.

"The first tournament of the year is a bit of an unknown. I tend to find my game where I left it," said Dunlap, who missed the cut in both the Argentina Open and the South African Open in December. "It feels pretty good in the range and you think if you can do that on the course it'll be good.

"You just don't know if you'll be able to do that once the gun goes off. It's just aim and fire sometimes. You don't know what you should or shouldn't be doing."

Dunlap moved into contention late Thursday morning with birdies on his final three holes for a 5-under 65, one behind Klauk's leading 64. After two birdies and two bogeys on his first four holes, he settled down on a windy Friday afternoon and slowly moved forward while most of the field had it in reverse on a course that annually ranks among the toughest on Tour.

Friday's scoring average at the par-70 layout was 73.118.

"You're only going to hit about half the fairways out here and so you have to play that flier-knucklebally shot to the right part of the green or give yourself a good up-and-down chance because you can't hit the green," said the leader. "You really have to think your way around. You don't fire at the pins. I hit a lot of good-looking iron shots to give myself chances. (At 7 under)...that's' the best I've played in a long time."

Solid, steady play has given Dunlap his first 36-hole lead in 145 career starts on Tour. His only win came at the 2004 Mark Christopher Charity Classic, where he came from three strokes behind on the final day and won by three.

"I've exceeded my expectations," he said. "But to be perfectly honest, the first tournament of the year, you don't even know what your expectations are."

Nobody really expected low scores during the wind-swept afternoon rounds, but Atwal had it to 5 under par before a bogey on the closing hole dropped him one stroke further back of Dunlap.

"The fairways are hard, the greens are hard, the rough's brutal and the wind was up," said Atwal. "There's nothing easy to it. Looking at it, it looks playable but if you don't hit these fairways, you're done."

Sixty-two players aren't done, having survived the 36-hole cut, which came at 5-over-par 145, the highest cut in the tournament's five-year history. Only nine players are under par heading into the weekend.

"I'm hitting it well and putting unbelievably and I'm only 3-under par," Bates chuckled afterwards. "Most of the tournaments on the Nationwide Tour after two days, it's 12- to 15-under par. This golf course is just brutal. It tests you mentally. If you're not thinking your way around, you're going to get beat."

Second-Round News & Notes: Patrick Damron was disqualified when he did not show up for his morning tee time and failed to notify officials. ... Friday's second-round scoring average of 73.118 was the highest second-day average in tournament history and the second-toughest single day (2004, final round, 73.238). ... The 36-hole cut at 5 over par is the highest on the Nationwide Tour since a 6-over-par cut at the 2006 LaSalle Bank Open. The highest cut on Tour in 2007 was 4 over par -- Livermore Valley Wine Country Championship and Nationwide Children's Hospital Invitational. ... Saturday's pairings will be twosomes and tee times begin at 8:03 a.m.