Defending champions top leaderboard

Hank Kuehne and Jeff Sluman combined for a 10-under 62 Saturday and moved into a tie for the lead with Justin Leonard and Steve Flesch after two rounds of the Franklin Templeton Shootout.

Kuehne made a 15-foot birdie putt at No. 17 and rolled in an 8-footer for birdie at the 18th in the best ball format, getting his team to 18-under at Tiburn Golf Club. First-round leaders Leonard and Flesch had a second straight 9-under 63.

Host Greg Norman and Scott McCarron (64) were tied for third with Mark Calcavecchia and Loren Roberts (63) at 15-under. The father and son team of Jay and Bill Haas combined for an 11-under 61 to reach 14-under.

Sluman believes the late second-round push will help his team heading into Sunday's final-round scramble.

"You'd rather start out the day even instead of one back, especially in the scramble format," Sluman said. "I think it was important for us just to finish birdie-birdie and not kind of give away what we had rallied so hard to do in the middle of the round after being even-par after five."

Leonard and Flesch were able to stay atop the leaderboard despite not playing well.

"Fortunately, we were able to make a few and keep ourselves in this," Leonard said. "I think it was kind of one of those days where neither of us were real sharp."

Calcavecchia and Roberts closed the first round with three straight birdies and opened the second with birdies on four of their first six holes. Roberts punctuated the round with a long birdie putt at the 18th.

Flesch expects the final round to come down to the team that is putting the best.

"That's all a scramble really is, no matter if you're playing on your club level or you're playing out here," he said. "You've got to make the putts. That's what it's going to boil down to."

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