Round 2, HP Byron Nelson Championship

Standing over his ball in a swale behind the 18th green, Jason Dufner would have been content with a par and a spot in the big group tied for the lead in the HP Byron Nelson Championship Instead, Dufner had the lead to himself Friday. He finished by chipping in from 37 feet, his fourth birdie in five holes, after driving wide right and having his approach roll over the green.

"No, that wasn't in the thought process," Dufner said. "Pretty lucky for it to go in, but that's part of golf. Sometimes you get those breaks."

His second long chip-in wrapped up a 4-under 66 for a two-round total of 7-under 133. That put Dufner a stroke ahead of a group of six players that included Matt Kuchar, currently sixth in the FedExCup standings, who won THE PLAYERS Championship last week.

Dufner got married the week after his first PGA TOUR victory in New Orleans last month, and returned to play last week.

He has the 36-hole lead for the fourth time this season, including the Masters, and the seventh time in his career. The experience of having a victory can provide a different mindset while leading at the halfway point again.

"Maybe a little bit," he said. "I'm confident with my game and happy with where my game is right now."

Kuchar shot a 68 to join first-round leader Ryan Palmer (70), Chad Campbell (66), Pat Perez (67), Dickey Pride (68) and Marc Leishman (69) at 6 under.

Defending champion Keegan Bradley (68), who last summer won the PGA Championship three months after becoming a first-time winner in a Nelson playoff against Palmer, was two strokes behind the leaders along withRyuji Imada (68) and Charley Hoffman (69).

Kuchar recovered from a miserable early stretch when he had two bogeys and a double bogey in a four-hole span.

After a birdie at No. 10 to start his second round, Kuchar had a bogey at the 455-yard 12th when his approach from the rough landed in a bunker. His approach at No. 14 went in the water, leading to a double bogey before he again wasn't able to get up-and-down out of a greenside bunker at the par-4 15th.

"I got on the wrong side of things," Kuchar said. "Par 5, took advantage of that. So I was pleased that I was able to hang in there and bounce back."

His approach at the 546-yard 16th was inside of 5 feet. That was the first of his five birdies without another bogey over his final 12 holes.

Kuchar still has chance to become the first PGA TOUR player since Tiger Woods in 2009 to win in consecutive weeks. Woods also was the last player to win in his next start after winning THE PLAYERS Championship. That was in 2001, two years afterDavid Duval pulled off that feat.

Phil Mickelson had a fitting finish in a round of 69 with a double bogey after his tee shot at No. 18 went in the water and his approach after the drop went over the green.

"I hit it terrible today, there was no other way around it," Mickelson said. "I've just got some mechanical issues where I was not striking the ball very solid. I was able to hit decent shots on the backside to make birdies and make a run, but that last hole stunk."

Dufner was 4 under when he caught a glimpse of a scoreboard early in his back nine and noticed the crowd near the top with little movement on a day with steady winds.

"I was kind of around par for the day, trying to stay patient a little bit, maybe get a birdie or two," Dufner said.

Even after a bogey at No. 12, when his approach landed in a greenside bunker, Dufner did much more than he hoped for down the stretch.

That started with three birdies in a row. There was a 21-foot putt at No. 14 before he holed a 35-foot chip at No. 15, then made a 21-foot birdie putt at No. 16.

"Ended up getting birdie on four of the last five, couple of chip-ins, which you don't expect, especially the one on 18," Dufner said. "It was a nice way to finish."

Before his last hole, which he preceded with consecutive birdies, Mickelson had only one bogey despite being in trouble several times.

There was the par save at No. 8 after he missed the fairway but knocked his second shot from the rough to inside 4 feet. His tee shot at No. 9 landed under a tree and he used a 5-wood to punch the ball under branches. It rolled up onto the green and he made a 17-foot birdie putt.

The consolation for Mickelson is that he is within six strokes of the lead with two rounds to play.

"There will be a bunching on the leaderboard," he said. "If I give myself some more chances (Saturday), I `m starting to feel a little bit better with the putter, and I should be able to make some."

Wi, Dufner will battle the course, pursuers all week

Just when it looked like the tough old golf course at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge might be in its most inviting mood in years, a hot, nasty little southeast breeze turned gustier on Thursday and roughed up a number of the players in the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. 

One of the late starters -- Jason Dufner -- was unscathed by the ill winds of the afternoon, and fought his way into a tie for the lead with Charlie Wi at 6-under 66. Neither has won on the PGA TOUR and it might be a little early to suggest one or the other could hold on and break through for their first victory this week.

They led by two strokes over long-hitting Nick Watney and three strokes over a group of seven tied for fourth at 69. All the players in that group are bombers, including the current longest driver on the PGA TOUR, Bubba Watson. Then there's Tiger Woods -- who has won this event six times -- Anthony Kim, who appears to have found something in his game after going winless on TOUR since taking the 2010 Shell Houston, Jimmy Walker, the only other player in the first-round top 10 without a win, and Justin Rose, who won two weeks ago.

Multiple winners Sean O'Hair (4), who last won in 2011, and reigning PLAYERS champion, K.J. Choi (8) -- both of whom can go deep -- round out the top 10.

That's a whole lot of firepower for Dufner and Wi to be trying to stave off for three more rounds, especially with the added burden of going for their first win. Dufner is making his 161st start and Wi his 167th start.

If either were to pull it off, it wouldn't be the first time a relatively short-hitting, putting wizard has prevailed at Bay Hill, but it would break a long string of power players that began with Phil Mickelson in 1997 and has run right up throughMartin Laird in 2011. Paul Goydos in 1996 was the last short-to-medium-length hitter to win here, following consecutive wins in 1994-95 by Loren Roberts.

Before counting out either of the co-leaders, there are a few things worth noting. Each has made some serious noise this season. Wi had the 54-hole lead and finished second at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-am a few weeks ago; Dufner has shot 66 in the opening round of his last three events, finishing T-29 at the World Golf Championships Cadillac Championship and T-10 at the Transitions Championship.

Dufner, who grew up in Coral Springs west of Fort Lauderdale, has a few other things going for him. He'll be turning 35 on Saturday, so this could portend a happy confluence of confidence, a little birthday karma and a keen understanding of the vagaries of South Florida golf.

"Played a lot of good golf throughout my career in South Florida," said Dufner, whose loss to Keegan Bradley in a playoff at last year's PGA Championship also came on familiar Bermuda grass at the Atlanta Athletic Club. "I feel very comfortable down here. Obviously, I'm playing some really nice golf. I've held the lead at Doral; held the lead last week through two rounds."

Closing the deal is the issue, something Dufner recognizes and he dealt with upfront and unprompted in Thursday's press conference.

"I'm really happy where my game is," he said. "Just looking to close a little bit better on the weekend and try to close one of these tournaments out and try to get a win."

Those who watched the aplomb with which Dufner approached the first 68 holes of the PGA Championship will recall just how bulletproof he was looking until he hit his tee shot into the pond at the 15th hole and made the first of three straight bogeys to fritter away a 5-stroke lead.

But there was no dark cloud following him around after that tournament, and his continued good play into this season indicates that he just might have gone through enough disappointment to steel his resolve.

And Wi has been laughing off the 13 that marred his Sunday round at Transitions, jokingly answering a question about how he certainly had put it behind him quickly by thanking the reporter who asked it and saying, "Next question?"

The next question is how will a pair of non-winners hold of such a formidable array of chasers who have Augusta, Ga., on their minds as motivation this week? That includes Woods -- who would like to get a victory before Augusta to end a winless drought of 30 months -- and Ernie Els, a two-time winner at Bay Hill, who needs to move up 12 spots in the Official World Golf Ranking just to get into the Masters field.

Els predicted Thursday's tough finish and seems to be preparing himself for a tough weekend.

"It's playing tough this year," he said. "Greens are going to get firm. Anything under par I would be satisfied with."

If the windblown first round, in which 86 golf balls were hit into the lakes of Bay Hill, is any indicator, it could be a tough 54 holes remaining -- especially for the winless leaders, trying to hang on at a place that turns nasty on a dime.