Nancy Scranton played her best golf of the year in difficult conditions, shooting 7-under-par 65 today to share the lead with Dale Eggeling in the Welch's-Circle K Championship.

Eggeling, who always seems to play well in Tucson without winning, had a 67 earlier and was the first to reach the midpoint with a 9-under 135.

They were one shot ahead of two players who have mastered the 6,222-yard Randolph Park North layout before -- defending champion Helen Alfredsson, who also shot 67, and 1995 winner Dottie Pepper. She was one of four co-leaders when the second round began, and carded a 69.

Ashli Price-Bunch, Akiko Fukushima and Tracy Hanson, who tied a course record by shooting 6-under 29 on the front nine, were three shots off the pace.

Se Ri Pak and Hiromi Kobayashi, who shared the lead with Pepper and Price-Bunch, were in a group of nine at 139.

Seventy-six players made the cut at 1-over 145.

Among them was Karrie Webb, the LPGA Tour leader in money won, scoring, eagles and birdies after two victories in four events. Webb had a 69 Friday -- her 13th below-par score in 17 rounds this year -- for a 143.

Two-time champion Donna Andrews, who won in 1994 and 1997, got to play on the weekend after a 140. Former champions Meg Mallon (1993) and Liselotte Neumann (1996) also made the cut, Mallon at 143 and Neumann at 144.

Scranton had reconstructive surgery on her left shoulder in 1996 and sat the season. She has since struggled to regain her form.

She had a 65 last year in the Big Apple Classic, but missed the cut in four of her first six tournaments this season. She felt this round in strong, erractic winds topped anything since she won her second title in 1992.

Starting on the back nine, she birdied the first two holes, eagled the yielding 13th, a 470-yard par-5, and made the turn with consecutive birdies on the eighth, ninth and 10th holes of the round.

She bogeyed the 15th hole when she chipped out of a bunker and two-putted from 10 feet, and had to get up-and-down on the next two to stay in contention. But Scranton knocked a 4-iron onto the green at the finishing hole and two-putted from 20 feet for her sixth birdie of the round -- the one that tied Eggeling.

Playing in a tournament where she's had five top-10 finishes in the last eight years, Eggeling was outstanding the wind -- she avoided mistakes and had putts of 18 and 30 feet among her five birdies.

Scranton and Alfredsson both eagled No. 13, where nine of the 13 eagles recorded Friday and all three eagles from the opening round were made.