Trio top leaderboard at halfway

Gil Morgan is totally focused on preserving his Champions Tour winning streak. Jay Haas' mind is wandering to Alabama -- and Loren Roberts is just grateful to win a few mind games with the course at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship.

Morgan shot a steady 3-under 69 Friday, while Roberts had a wild ride to the same score as they matched Lonnie Nielsen atop the board at Sonoma Golf Club after the second round of the tour's season-ending event.

Morgan, Roberts and Nielsen are at 6-under 138 -- but with 20 players within four strokes of the lead, all of the lucrative prizes up for grabs this weekend still are quite available.

``I'm surprised somebody hasn't broken loose,'' said Roberts, who made three birdies in his final six holes to offset consecutive bogeys early on the back nine. ``That's the way both days have been. You get started, and then fall off and have to regroup. ... It's a really good golf course that you have to think your way around.''

Haas joined Tom Watson, Craig Stadler and Jerry Pate among six golfers just one stroke behind the leaders after what's expected to be the only drizzly day on Sonoma's unforgiving rough and clever layouts.

``Nobody seems to be getting too far away, so I like my position,'' said Haas, 3 under for the day.

Haas is more worried about his son, Bill, who entered the weekend 21st on the Nationwide Tour's money list -- with the top 21 finishers getting PGA Tour cards.

Bill Haas was in seventh place in Prattville, Ala., on Friday, just five strokes off the lead -- and his old man stayed updated with phone calls from his wife, verbal updates from his caddy and a bunch of text messages, though his 13-year-old son had to help with those.

``We talked last night, and I'm just trying to keep it light,'' Jay Haas said. ``He obviously knows. I don't have to tell him what it means. It's a tough course, (but) I think it's right up his alley.''

Morgan, the Oklahoma optometrist, is one of the most consistent, successful players in the senior tour's history, winning 23 events -- including one in each of his first nine years on the Champions Tour. Though he's sixth on the money list with three second-place finishes, he hasn't won yet in 2005.

``It's got to end at some point in time,'' Morgan said of his streak, second only to Hale Irwin's current streak of 11 years. ``I might as well get ready for it one way or another.''

Morgan seems cool about it, but said the streak has been on his mind ``since the first event'' of the year.

Nielsen, the first-round leader who has never won on the Champions Tour, made three straight bogeys on the front nine, followed by two birdies in the final three -- including a 51-foot birdie putt at 18 for an even 72.

Bruce Fleisher and Ireland's Des Smyth also are just one stroke off the lead. Dana Quigley, the Champions Tour's money leader and the top man in the season-long Schwab Cup points competition, double-bogeyed the 16th to fall to 4 under for the tournament.

Tom Kite, who matched Jim Thorpe and Wayne Levi at 68 for the day's best round, was among the leaders heading to the 18th hole. But a double-bogey, including a penalty drop, sent him back to 10th place -- not much fun for a player who blew a three-day lead to Mark McNulty in last year's tournament.

The elite field is down to 28 golfers: Allen Doyle quit before the round because of his troublesome left knee, which has bothered him since surgery on Sept. 27, while R.W. Eaks withdrew with an undisclosed illness after a second-round 74.

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