Hal Sutton and Joey Sindelar each shot 4-under-par 68s today for the second straight day to go to 8-under 136 and share the midway lead in the Shell Houston Open.

Jeff Gallagher, making the cut for only the fourth time in 13 events this year, had a 3-under 69 and was one shot back. Omar Uresti, Mark Wiebe and Australian Stuart Appleby were at 6-under 138 after two rounds.

David Duval, the world's top-ranked player, a four-time winner this year and the event's defending champion, was in a group at 139 after a 2-under 70 today.

Duval flirted with the lead, getting to 7-under after 14 holes before taking a 7 on the par-5 15th when his drive went out of bounds and ended up in the back yard of a home bordering the Tournament Players Course at The Woodlands. He parred the last three holes.

Sutton, a two-time winner last year whose best showings this year are a pair of fourths, had six birdies and two bogeys.

"I drove the ball really well," he said. "That helped, being in the middle of the fairway."

Sutton was in an early group that played before the swirling wind and 80-degree-plus heat made the course more treacherous.

Playing the back nine first, he got off to a rocky start, landing in a bunker at the par-4 10th hole, then missing an 8-foot par putt. He bounced back with a birdie at No. 11.

"That aggravated me a little bit," he said of opening hole stumble. "Then I hit a real good shot in on 11 to make birdie. To back that bogey up with that birdie right behind it kind of made me feel a little bit better."

More birdies followed at Nos. 13, 15, 17 and 1 before a bad iron shot at the par-4 second hole left him short and set up him up his other bogey of the round.

"It seems like it was harder to get to the hole today, but my game has been good," said Sutton, seeking his 11th career PGA Tour victory.

Sindelar, with six victories but none since 1990, also started on the back side but in the afternoon as the course began drying.

"The greens being that fried changed the entire complexion," he said.

But the back-to-back 68s guaranteed the 41-year-old from Horseheads, N.Y., would make the cut for the first time in three weeks.

"I got some sort of real bad flu and for two weeks I just ached," Sindelar said. "I couldn't get in sync."

He opened with a birdie at No. 10 and birdied again at Nos. 12 and 15. He had six straight pars before grabbing a share of the lead at 8-under by rolling in a birdie at the par-4 No. 4. He finished his bogey-free round with five straight pars.

"When it's going good, the good shots turn out very nicely and the bad shots kind of work," he laughed.

Gallagher, 163rd on the money list and winless since turning pro in 1988, got within one of the lead with a birdie on his 10th hole. But then he went bogey-birdie-bogey before birdies on two of his last three holes.

"I made some putts over five feet, which has been unusual for me," said Gallagher, who has struggled this year trying to recover from a shoulder injury.

DIVOTS: J.P. Hayes aced the 158-yard third hole en route to a second-round 69. It was the second hole-in-one of the tournament and the 12th on the PGA Tour this year. First-round leader Eric Booker had an ace at No. 16 on Thursday. ... Booker, who had a 6-under 66 Thursday, struggled in the second round to a 2-over 74, four shots back. No first-round leader has won this event in the 15 years it has been played at the TPC.