Saturday 27 February 2016 23:54, UK
Rickie Fowler continued to defy the difficulty of tackling one of the toughest courses on the PGA Tour as he claimed the outright lead at the Honda Classic.
Fowler was the only man in the field to complete 36 holes without a bogey on his card at PGA National, matching his opening four-birdie 66 to hit the front on eight under with only 19 players under the card for the tournament.
Jimmy Walker finished birdie-eagle to vault into second place ahead of overnight joint-leader Sergio Garcia, but Rory McIlroy crashed out after a second 72 left him one outside the cut mark at three over.
Fowler started at the 10th and safely negotiated his first six holes in par before holing from nine feet for birdie at the tough 16th, and he avoided his first bogey of the event at the first with a delightful pitch to three feet after a wayward drive left him unable to hit the green in two.
Another neat chip set up a birdie at the long third, and he picked up another shot at the sixth before holing a slick, big-breaking birdie putt from outside 20 feet at the ninth to cap a superb two days' work.
Fowler's Ryder Cup team-mate Walker emerged as his closest challenger after he produced a rousing finish to his 66, draining a 25-foot putt for birdie at 17 before knocking his second to 40 feet at the last and rolling in the long putt for a closing eagle.
Garcia, playing alongside Fowler and USA Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, could not match the heights of his first-round 65 but a battling 69 kept him within striking distance of the leader.
The Spaniard described his form as "terrible" after he missed the cut at Riviera last week, but he consolidated his place at the right end of the leaderboard with three birdies against two bogeys on day two.
He chipped in from an awkward stance in the rough surrounding the 17th green and, after dropped shots at the first and sixth, Garcia came agonisingly close to a hole in one at the seventh as his drilled three-iron pitched on the front of the green and trundled up the slope before hanging on the lip of the cup.
Adam Scott continued his encouraging form as he matched the day's low round of 65 and kept a bogey off his card to head into the weekend just three strokes behind Fowler.
The former Masters champion eagled the third from 10 feet before a birdie at the eighth took him to the turn in 32, and he picked up another shot at 11 and safely two putted from around 50 feet at the par-five 18th to close on five under.
Hudson Swafford had earlier posted the first 65 featuring an eagle at the 18th as he turned in 31 before he bounced back from a bogey at the first with birdies at the second and sixth holes.
Jamie Donaldson is the lone British player under par after a 67 took him to one under, while Graeme McDowell and Greg Owen are level.
But McIlroy will have the weekend off for the second consecutive season after he undid a lot of hard graft with a triple-bogey six at the short fifth - his 14th hole of the round.
The 2012 champion, who lost a play-off to Russell Henley in 2014, started at the 10th and rolled in a 15-foot birdie putt at 12 before he slipped to three over with a double-bogey at 15, where his tee shot leaked right and into the water.
McIlroy responded with a brilliant pitch in from thick rough for an unlikely birdie at 16, and he answered a bogey at the first with a birdie at the third before coming to grief at the fifth.
His tee shot veered left and came to rest in the mud and rocks surrounding the green, from where he tried to hack onto the putting surface only for his ball to ricochet into the water hazard, and he eventually tapped in for a card-wrecking six.
