By Bill Cooney, PGATOUR.COM ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Bud Cauley didn’t hit his irons as well as he did the previous day at The McGladrey Classic. But he made enough putts and par saves for a second-round, even-par 70 that gave him the early lead at 8-under 132 on Friday at Sea Island Golf Club. Cauley took a one-shot lead over Michael Thompson (68), Brian Gay (68), D.J. Trahan (67) and Chad Campbell (67). He hit the same number of greens (14) as he did in a Round 1 62, but had 33 putts instead of the 24 he needed on Thursday. "I had a few nice up and downs out there and left two putts throughout the 4- or 5-footers for par," Cauley said. "So I'm happy. I would have loved to have shot under par. But even is not too bad, and I'm going to work on the irons a little bit and hopefully I'll be close tomorrow." Thompson, who tied for second at the U.S. Open, held the lead at 9 under until he four-putted the par-3 17th for a double-bogey 5. Thompson three-putted from 3 feet. “Just a little bit of nerves,” Thompson said. “It’s been since the U.S. Open since I’ve been in contention. But then again on these Bermuda greens the rules officials tend to cut the holes right where the grain changes. That always makes it difficult.” “It’s just unfortunate,” Thompson added. “But at the same time I’m right where I need to be.” Cauley finished T15 here last season, picking up enough money to earn non-member status for 2012. He became one of the few players to go right from college to the PGA TOUR without having to go to q-school. He’s had six top 10s and nine top 25s in 2012. And Cauley is excited about the possibility of winning for the first time on the PGA TOUR this weekend. "Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun," Cauley said. Still half the tournament left, but I'm hitting the ball well and I'm seeing the lines on the greens really well, too. So if I can just get a little bit closer, I think I'll do a little bit better."