Co-leaders Hale Irwin and Vicente Fernandez kept their streaks alive on Saturday. Kite made one of Saturday's biggest moves, jumping from a tie for 29th on Friday to a tie for first. He also won The Countrywide Tradition in a playoff in April. Kite's 63 ties the tournament record for the lowest second-round score. Bruce Fleisher set the mark with his 63 in 1999.
History is on the side of one of the four second-round leaders.
In the previous five events, a player who was in the lead or tied for the lead after 36 holes has won four times. The lone exception was in 1994 when second-round leader Dave Stockton could not hold off Lee Trevino , who defeated Stockton and Jim Albus by one stroke. Scores were a bit higher on Saturday with 40 players finishing below par compared to 52 on Friday. The scoring average for the field was 71.338 compared to 70.519 in the first round.