Overton's play firing on all cylinders after small slump

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BETHESDA, Md. -- Jeff Overton grinned, thrust his arms into the air and did his best Rocky Balboa imitation. Minus the courthouse steps, of course.

"I finally made a cut," Overton explained the celebration.

And not only is Overton playing the weekend for just the third time in his last seven starts, the 25-year-old is tied with Tom Pernice Jr. for the lead at the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods.

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Jeff Overton made the cut for just the third time in his last seven starts on Friday.

Jeff Overton

Through 36 holes

STATS Rnd1 Rnd2 TOT EAGLES -- -- 0 BIRDIES 5 5 10 PARS 12 13 25 BOGEYS 1 -- 1 DOUBLE BOGEYS -- -- 0 OTHER -- -- 0 DRIVING ACCURACY 64 71 67.9 DRIVING DISTANCE 303.0 294.0 298.5 PUTTS PER ROUND 30 27 28.5 PUTTS PER GIR 1.733 1.643 1.690 GREENS IN REG 83 78 80.6 SAND SAVES 67 100 75.0

Overton didn't make a bogey on Friday, and the 65 he shot left him 9 under. Until this week at Congressional Country Club, the Indiana graduate hadn't shot consecutive rounds in the 60s on TOUR all season.

Unless, of course, you count Monday's qualifier for the British Open where Overton earned medalist honors with rounds of 63 and 67 just two days after he missed the cut at the Buick Open. He finished six strokes ahead of John Rollins at TPC Michigan that day.

"I've been struggling with the driver and 3-wood the last two months -- all year, actually," Overton said. "But it's really starting to come around. We've been working real hard on it, and the last I'd say seven or eight days, it's just been feeling awesome.

"(I've) just really been slowing it down a lot and getting a nice transition at the top of the golf swing. If you do that, it's really good."

Overton was steady on Friday, hitting all but four fairways -- and making birdies on three of the holes where he didn't find the short grass off the tee. The putts that started falling on Monday have continued to find the bottom of the cup, too.

An 8-footer for birdie after his drive strayed way left on the first hole set the tone. Overton followed with birdie putts of 9, 41 and 11 feet at Nos. 9, 11 and 17, respectively. He also got up and down from beside the green at No. 16, tapping in from 35 inches.

"Jeff is a great young player and he's playing really good right now," Pernice said. "He blitzed it through the qualifying on Monday and I saw him afterwards, so he's obviously playing good."

Overton is in his third year on the PGA TOUR after making it through qualifying school the same year he earned his degree in sports management from Indiana. His best finish was a tie for second at the 2007 Wyndham Championship.

The relatively untested Overton actually took a three-stroke lead into the final round at Forest Oaks last year. He didn't play poorly, shooting a 70, but Brandt Snedeker played better in throwing up a 63 to earn his first TOUR victory.

"Obviously, these guys are good and anytime you have a lead, you can't really think about (it) until like make the last hole," Overton said. "But even then, you can't think about it because ... you never know when somebody is going to birdie five or six holes and shoot 63 like Brandt did that Sunday.

"You can only control your own game. You can only just go for it and take every single shot that the golf course has and gives you. If you can do that, hopefully we'll be able to hang in there."

Outwardly, Overton appears extremely laid-back. Make no mistake, though, he's highly competitive -- and even remembers changing the rules "to my benefit" when friends would come over to play in his backyard.

The son of two school teachers, Overton was drawn to golf in junior high school because he was tired of what he called the "politics" of baseball. He learned the fundamentals from Bob Walthers, who runs a driving range in Evansville, and grew up playing a muni where he tried to drive every green.

"Golf is one of those games -- it's just you," Overton said. "If you can go shoot the best score, it doesn't matter how you do it, you're the better player that day. You deserve to play."

Walthers set a bucket of 500 balls in front of Overton the first day he came for a lesson. To get better, the pro told his student, he would need to hit a bucket like that off the mat each day. For the next four years, nearly every day, Overton obeyed.

"He really mentored me to be a good person and to really work hard," Overton recalled. "You know, the harder I worked, the luckier I got. It's kind of the motto that he taught me."

Overton's mother, who still teaches fifth grade, also played golf and even won the nine-hole city championship when she was pregnant with him. "She had the biggest trophy in the house until I finally won my first after I went to college," Overton said.

The AT&T National trophy would trump them all.

"They say the first is the toughest to win," Overton said. "So hopefully I will continue to keep plugging along, hang in there, stay confident and go out there and hit a lot of great golf shots this weekend."