Sheehan sheds co-leaders to hold top spot at halfway

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Brendon Todd aced the 17th hole Friday with his 8-iron after acing the same hole on Thursday with his 7-iron.

ATHENS, Ga. -- Patrick Sheehan continued his solid play with a 3-under 69 in Friday's second round of the Athens Regional Foundation Classic. He stands alone at 9 under par, and leads Bob Burns by two strokes.

Four players are tied for third at 6 under. The field was cut to 65 players at with scores of even-par or better.

Sheehan has led in both the first and second rounds only once before in his career. His only win as a professional was a wire-to-wire victory at the 2002 Price Cutter Charity Championship.

The Providence, R.I., native is a Nationwide Tour graduate with five full seasons on the PGA TOUR since 2003. By finishing 128th on last year's PGA TOUR money list, Sheehan has conditional status there plans to play on both Tours in 2009.

After 36 holes of play, Sheehan has yet to make a bogey and missed only three fairways and two greens in regulation.

"The soft course conditions help because the ball doesn't run through the fairway," he said. "Hitting the fairways really helps because you can clean your ball -- it would be covered in mud off the fairway."

For the second consecutive day, tournament officials implemented a local rule allowing players to lift, clean and replace their ball in closely mown areas through the green (areas cut to fairway height or less).

Burns followed his first-round 74 by tying the course record set by Ken Duke in 2006. His 9-under-par 63 included one eagle, seven birdies and no bogeys. Burns jumped from a tie for 82nd at the start of the day to solo second.

In addition to Burns' round, the day's highlight came from Brendon Todd, who made his second hole-in-one in as many days on the same hole. From 147 yards, the former University of Georgia standout hit an 8-iron into the par-3 17th. The ball landed about four feet left of the hole and rolled into the back of the cup. Todd used a 7-iron Thursday from 157 yards.

The only other player known to have to aced the same hole twice in the same tournament was Graham Marsh in the 2004 Senior British Open. Previously, there had never been two holes-in-one made by the same player in the same event in the 20-year history of the Nationwide Tour. Todd finished the day with a 71 and is currently tied with seven other players at 5 under par, four shots off the lead.

Jhonattan Vegas also carded a hole-in-one Friday, on No. 13 with a 6-iron from 216 yards.

Players were grouped in threesomes starting on the first and 10th tees, with tee times from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Play concluded at approximately 7:30 p.m. Saturday's third-round pairings will be twosomes starting on the first tee at approximately 8:30 a.m.

Second-Round Notebook: First-round co-leader Kevin Kisner shot 3-over 75 and is tied for 22nd at 3 under par. Kisner is a sponsor exemption and a former University of Georgia standout. ... Veteran caddie Butch Vail is on the bag for Craig Kanada this week. Vail caddied for both the 2007 and 2008 winners here, Martin Laird and Robert Damron. Kanada is within striking distance at 4 under and five shots off the pace. ... Nick Flanagan withdrew before the start of the round. ... Tom Scherrer was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard in Round 1. ... Friday was another mostly sunny day with high temperatures into the lower 70s. Winds were out of the east-southeast at 6-12 mph. Dry conditions will continue into Saturday before another round of showers and thunderstorms moves into the area on Sunday.