Zambri & Berganio share halfway lead

Chris Zambri retained a portion of the lead after the second round of the $500,000 BUY.COM Omaha Classic at The Champions Club.

This time his counterpart is David Berganio Jr., who used a 5-under-par 67 in the morning to move to 12-under-par 132 and enter the clubhouse with the lead.

Zambri, playing in the afternoon, finished with a 68 on Friday and the pair lead Lee Rinker (65), Kris Cox (66), Ahmad Bateman (69) and Jason Allen (63) by one stroke. Steve Ford (69) and Charles Warren (66) are tied for seventh, three strokes back.

Zambri was 2-under for the day until a bogey on the ninth hole dropped him to 9-under for the tournament. He shook it off immediately and used a driver and 5-wood to reach the par-5 green on No. 10 in two and then knocked in a 10-footer for eagle.

"It was big because I had just made bogey on nine," Zambri said.

He sandwiched two more birdies on Nos. 13 and 17 around a bogey on the 16th to position himself into Saturday's last group with Berganio. "I'm real excited ... That will be fun ... I've known him for almost 15 years. I'm looking forward to it.

"It's nice because we are in Omaha and because there is a lot of support, there will be a lot of people out and I think it's always more fun to play to a gallery," continued Zambri.

Berganio put together his second straight solid round of golf. After shooting a bogey-free 68 in the first round, he made it another 11 holes before his first bogey of the tournament.

"I was just hitting fairways and greens. This morning it was a little windy and the course wasn't playing too easy, so I was just trying to play smart. I actually missed a couple putts, rimmed the edges on the front," said Berganio after ringing up seven birdies on Friday to bring his total to 13 through two rounds.

Birdies continued to drop at the 7,059-yard course as six players recorded at least seven birdies during Friday's round. Top honor went to Monday qualifier Jason Allen who poured in nine birdies on the way to a 9-under-par 63 and the best round to date in this year's event.

"I'm elated. It just seemed to flow. Things went good ... Didn't get nervous on too many shots," said Allen, who is playing in just his third career BUY.COM TOUR event. "Only really made one mistake, I misclubbed myself on No. 4."

After a five-bogey day on Thursday, Allen came back on Friday to play one of six bogey-free rounds on the day.

"I hit it in safe spots and made two long ones (45-feet on No. 3 and 25-feet on No. 14). That was nice. If I hit it the way I wanted to it was pretty close and I just putted great today," said the 26-year-old from Pueblo, Col. "I putted well the last two days, just fabulous. I even putted good on Monday. I have been having trouble with that this year, but they are just rolling in there."

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