Gamez leads with second 67

Robert Gamez was sitting on his couch the last few weeks listening to Phil Mickelson talk about playing aggressively. The struggling golfer took it to heart.

Gamez, who won twice on the PGA Tour in 1990 to earn rookie of the year honors but hasn't had a top-10 finish in five years, shot his second straight 67 Friday and shared the 36-hole lead at the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic with Mark Calcavecchia.

The 33-year-old Gamez made the field at Forest Oaks Country Club as the seventh alternate and he's tied for 201st on the tour money list with $9,190 in three events.

But Gamez is at 10-under-par after carding birdies on Nos. 13-16 and then saving par on 17 by holing a 30-foot putt for his second straight 5-under round.

He won his first tour event 12 years ago -- beating Calcavecchia by four shots -- and averaged three top-10 finishes in his first eight seasons. However, he hasn't had one since getting into a car accident in 1998 and losing his confidence.

``I said this week that I was going to come out and fire at it and see what happened,'' Gamez said. ``That's the way I've always played in junior golf and college golf and the first four or five years out here.

``Yeah, I've shot a lot of high scores, but I also shot a lot of low ones, and somewhere along the line I've lost a little bit of my confidence and I didn't know if I could play (aggressively) any more. Now, that I'm starting to hit it better I can go ahead and be aggressive again. It has paid off the last few days.''

Gamez, who needed just 24 putts Friday, had a stretch on tour last year where he didn't break 70 for six months.

``I'm going to be nervous, I was nervous on the last few holes coming in today,'' Gamez said when asked about the weekend. ``But it's a good nervous. It's good to have those butterflies. I haven't had those in a long time.''

Gamez and Calcavecchia, who followed his first-round 65 with a 69, were one shot ahead of Phil Tataurangi and Rocco Mediate, who both shot 67.

John Huston was three shots behind the co-leaders after a 66.

Mediate said he wouldn't be surprised to see Gamez win despite his recent struggles.

``Robert has always been good, he just didn't know it,'' Mediate said. ``Whatever it was in 1990 that was in there, it's still in there. He's got to figure a way to get it out. It looks like he's figured that out this week. This guy was all-world in 1990.''

Gamez said he never considered giving up the game.

``I just love playing golf,'' Gamez said. ``Yeah, the things that I've been going through, not getting my card back, and being back and forth between two tours has been frustrating, but I just loving playing. I love the competition.

``Something inside of me just knew that I could get back to where I should be -- even though my confidence level was low,'' he added.

What a difference two years made for Tataurangi, who shot a first-round 92 here two years ago and had to withdraw because of a neck injury.

``You can either look the bull in the face and take it by the horns or you can run away,'' he said.

Forest Oaks, with its high rough and difficult pin placements, hasn't yielded a lot of low scores through two rounds.

``You really have to play well to win here,'' said Carl Paulson, who shot a 70 and stands four shots back. ``You've got to do a lot of stuff here.Sometimes it's hard to swallow that ego and pull the wedge out and chip out.''

DIVOTS

U.S. Amateur champion Bubba Dickerson, making his pro debut, missed the cut after shooting 73-77. ... The 19 putts by John Maginnes was one shy of the tour record held by six players. He two-putted from 18 feet on his last hole to miss tying the mark, carding a 2-under 70. ... Willie Wood made the most of his last-second spot in the tourney. Wood subbed for defending champion Scott Hoch, who withdrew because of vision problems, and made the cut at 4-under.

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