Stuart Appleby has continued his good form at the PGA Tour's stableford event in Nevada to be just one point behind unheralded leader Richy Werenski after the second round.
American tour rookie Werenski carded the best round of the day to earn 15 points, and move up to 26, in the 'Modified Stableford' format at Montreux Country Club.
Veteran Australian Appleby, chasing a 10th career win on the world's richest golf tour, collected six birdies and made just two bogeys for 10 points and is just two adrift of the lead.
"To get 10 points today was nice," Appleby told reporters.
"Walking to the first tee that would have been a dream (because) I wasn't really warming up that good on the range and was a little concerned but I made the cut.
"Here we go, we'll see what happens.
"I'm starting to make birdies, I'm rolling it nice, reading it nice.
"I've just got to keep the ball in the middle of the clubface and see if I can grab 20 points or something over the weekend."
Appleby, 46, said he never knows from day to day how his body will feel after major back surgery in 2015.
"I've got to try and just see if I can get my body to behave over four days," he said.
"I'm hitting it down the middle. My distance is not there or anything like that, but I'm hitting it where I can place the ball in the right positions."
There were mixed results for the other Australians in the field.
Matt Jones is tied for 28th on 15 points and Peter Lonard is a point further back after both picked up 9 points on Friday.
Defending champions Greg Chalmers could not add to his first round score of 11 points and dropped 43 places to 53rd, alongside Geoff Ogilvy.
Curtis Luck, Aaron Baddeley and Brett Drewitt all made the cut on the number, 10 points.
However, Robert Allenby, Cameron Percy and Steven Bowditch will have the weekend off.
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