KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Trevor Cone sits alone atop the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the AdventHealth Championship following a second-round 5-under 67 Friday afternoon. It marks the first 36-hole lead for Cone in his Korn Ferry Tour career, as well as his first outright lead following any round since 2018.

Cone, making his 83rd career start on the Korn Ferry Tour this week, held a share of the 18-hole lead with MJ Daffue and Michael Feagles Thursday evening, as all three carded 7-under 65s in the first round. Cone, a native North Carolinian, pulled away from the pack in the second round with six birdies and an eagle, though he also made three bogeys. Cone leads the field with 15 total birdies (14 birdies, one eagle) this week.

“Today was kind of a blur,” Cone said. “A lot of good and then I kind of scrambled on the backside there the last few holes. It's nice to be back in contention for the first time in a while. Hopefully keep it going the next few rounds.”

Cone’s momentum from the first round carried over to Friday as he recorded an eagle-birdie-birdie start on Nos. 1-3. Two bogeys front at the fourth and seventh, along with another birdie at the par-3 eighth put him 3-under par at the turn. The 29-year-old started the back nine in nearly identical fashion, tallying a trio of birdies at Nos. 10-12. His final six holes consisted of five pars and a bogey at the par-3 14th.

“I just kept making putts on the back,” Cone said. “I wasn't hitting it super close. The start, I just hit two really good shots into No. 1 and then made a 20-footer to get the day started. That's always nice. Then had a tap-in on No. 2 and hit a bomb on No. 3. It kind of settled the nerves a little bit.”

A Virginia Tech alum who plays from Concord, North Carolina, Cone has four consecutive rounds in the 60s at this event, as he carded a 3-under 68 and 4-under 67 in the final two rounds of the 2021 AdventHealth Championship. Cone finished T15 in this event last year, one of two top-10s for he recorded in the 2020-21 season.

The last time that Cone held a solo lead in a Korn Ferry Tour event was in his rookie season at the 2018 Ellie Mae Classic at TPC Stonebrae, where he earned the only victory of his career. In what was just his eighth start on Tour, Cone logged rounds of 64-63-66-64 and carried the outright lead into the final round. He finished at 23-under 257, winning by four strokes over runner-up Josh Teater.

Since his victory in 2018, Cone has played in 74 Korn Ferry Tour events, logging just one top-10 finish, a T9 at the 2020 Astara Golf Championship presented by Mastercard. Heading into this weekend as the leader, Cone couldn’t help but reflect on the last time he was in this position.

“Even today, I kind of started to think back to those time,” Cone said of his 2018 win. “I just had a motto that week, especially on the weekend - it was one hole, one step, one breath at a time. So just trying to take it shot for shot and hit a lot of fairways and a lot of greens.”

In nine starts this year, Cone’s best finish was a T45 in the season-opening The Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay. Prior to joining the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2018 season, Cone spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons competing on PGA TOUR Canada, where he made 23 starts and posted up 11 top 25s.

Third-round tee times will from 10:00 a.m. through 12:06 p.m. local time off the first and 10th tees.