Ray Floyd decided he would rather work on his golf game than quit and the extra practice could be paying quick dividends.
"I said before the tournament that I had addressed my game and I was not happy," said Floyd, who shot a 6-under-par 66 Friday at the Senior Players Championship to share the 36-hole lead with John Bland and Hale Irwin."You've all heard me say if I don't feel competitive I'm not going to play. I was getting to the point where I wasn't competitive and of course, I don't want to quit. I'm not ready to quit so I went to work on my golf game and it's paying dividends."
The trio had a 7-under 137 total for two trips around the 6,876-yard TPC of Michigan in the tour's last major tournament of the year. Irwin had a 67 Friday, while Bland had a 69.
Lee Trevino, Bruce Summerhays and Jerry McGee were another stroke back, while defending champion J.C. Snead and Bob Charles were at 139.
First-round leader Tom Weiskopf followed Thursday's 66 with a 79 that included a double-bogey 6 on No. 12 and a double-bogey 7 on 17.
The Jack Nicklaus-designed course continued to play relatively easy as 32 players broke par on the 6,876-yard layout in the second round. One of them was Joe Jimenez, who matched his age and shot a 70.
Twenty players shot 71 or better in Thursday's opening round.
Floyd, who has struggled for about a month and hasn't won an official tour event since winning the Emerald Coast Classic last November, birdied No. 1 with a 10-foot putt after his tee shot ended up in a fairway bunker.
It was one of only two fairways Floyd missed in the round that included six birdies and one bogey. Floyd misjudged the wind on the par-3 8th hole and wound up with a bogey.
"Playing as well as I did today and yesterday from tee to green is helping my putting," Floyd said. "I feel very good about myself. During my career I've given the effort much longer without getting any results.
"Now I expect to shoot a good round and I haven't had that feeling for quite some time."
Irwin used an eagle 3 on 13 to vault into a share of the second-round lead. He hit a driver, then a 4-iron to the edge of the green and made a 35-foot putt.
He continued a string of 3s that began with a par on 12 with a 12-foot birdie putt on 14, a 6-foot putt for par on 15 and another 6-foot birdie putt on 16.
"I really needed something to be a momentum maker," Irwin said of the long putt. "It was a confidence builder. I was just sort of dragging my butt around and I needed a swift kick from somebody or something to get my chin off my chest and get back to being more positive about things."
Bland, a little-known South African who is playing his first full season on the Senior PGA Tour and has won twice this year, had a steady round with four birdies and only one bogey.
Bland played 18 years on the European tour before joining the Senior PGA tour for two tournaments in 1995 with a tie for fifth place and a victory.
Summerhays started the day four under, two strokes behind Weiskopf, but the 52-year-old St. Louis, Mo., native completed the front nine in 5-under 31.
He birdied the first three holes, then made birdie putts on 5 and 7 to take a two-stroke lead. He fell back into the pack with bogeys on 12, 14 and 18.