Three tied for lead at halfway

Steve Runge, Brett Quigley and Spike McRoy share the 36-hole lead at the $400,000 BUY.COM Richmond Open. The trio are in at 6-under-par 134 at the Stonehenge Golf & Country Club, one stroke better than Larry Rinker.

Quigley posted the day’s best round, a 4-under 66, to get to the top of the leaderboard, while Runge and McRoy each carded their second straight 67. Rinker also fired a 3-under 67 to join the hunt. Todd Demsey (69) was alone in fifth, at 4-under-par, while Ted Purdy (69), Richard Zokol (68), Michael Muehr (71) and first-round leader Chris Zambri (72) were at 3 under and tied for sixth place.

A total of 63 golfers in the field of 144 made the cut, which came at 2-over-par 142. Only 21 players in the field were below par for the first 36 holes.

The Stonehenge course, which features just two par-5s, played nearly two full strokes above par for the second straight day. The 2-over-par cut is the highest on Tour this year.

The leaders all blistered the front nine and then tried to hold it together on the more difficult inward nine. McRoy (-5), Quigley (-4) and Runge (-4) were a combined 13 under on the front and a combined 3 over on the back Friday.

"I knew it was get it as low as you can on the front because the back is tough," said McRoy, who tied for second at last week’s Knoxville Open. "I hate to back up but I wasn’t trying to. This is just a tough golf course. It sure would be nice to play golf courses like this every week because, Bubba, if you want to get ready for the PGA Tour this is it, right here."

McRoy was a member of the PGA Tour in 1997 and 1998, while Quigley spent the past three years there.

"This game is such a battle between yourself and the golf course. There are so many great players out here," said Quigley, a runner-up two weeks ago at the South Carolina Classic. "Anyone can do it on any given day. It’s the guys who control their emotions and not get in their own way that do well. It’s easy as heck to talk about and hard as heck to do."

Runge, 90th on the current money list, was the first to get in the clubhouse at 6 under. A birdie-par-eagle start got the 31-year-old Ohio State graduate rolling Friday morning. His 6-iron from 162 yards found the target on the uphill 420-yard, third hole.

"I hit a little punch-cut up there," he said. "I saw the ball mark about 20 feet short of the hole and was hoping it didn’t go over the green. There was a lady up there but she didn’t have any reaction to the shot. When I saw the ball in the cup my caddie said ‘Wow, tough crowd.’ From there, I hit a lot of greens but didn’t get it real close."

Quigley joined Runge at the top with a six-birdie, two-bogey effort that ended with par saves on the final two holes.

"I thought even par would be a good score today," he said. "I didn’t put too much pressure on myself to shoot a good score and that seemed to help. You never know when a good week is coming."

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