Pat Perez continued his impressive form at the Bob Hope Classic as he carded a second consecutive bogey-free round to take a two-shot lead following Thursday's second round.
Perez followed up a blistering opening 61 with a nine-under-par 63 to move to 20-under and open up a gap over Briny Baird.
Perez, who never has won on the PGA Tour, reeled off 19 birdies and an eagle in his first two rounds that included a sizzling 28 over his first nine holes on Wednesday.
The 32-year-old made another excellent start on Thursday, sinking birdies on five of his first eight holes before adding four more over the second half of his round.
Baird, meanwhile, recorded a hole-in-one on the par-three seventh hole en route to his second straight 63 and help him keep in touch with Perez.
Baird also added eight birdies, including four in a row from the 13th, to claim sole possession of second place at 18-under.
David Berganio was level with Baird before a bogey on his final hole - the ninth - finished off a 64 that left him alone in third, three shots off the pace.
Tom Pernice Jr carded a bogey-free 63 to share fourth with Chris Stroud (63), Richard S. Johnson (65) and Jason Dufner (65) a shot further back.
Brad Adamonis shot the lowest round of the day, signing for a 10-under 62 to move within five shots of the lead.
Adamonis made eagles at the fourth and 16th and had a chance to match Perez's 61 from Wednesday but bogeyed the 18th.
Canadian Mike Weir, the 2003 champion, started the day one shot off the lead after an opening 62 but stumbled to a two-under 70 to fall away.
DJ Trahan, looking to become just the second player to defend this title, carded a 67 and is in a group that includes Weir.
Only Johnny Miller has been able to claim back-to-back titles at the Hope, in 1975 and 1976.
In the past 32 years, only five defending champions have ever posted top-10 finishes in their title defence.
With the impressive start, Perez set a PGA record for the lowest 36-hole score to begin a tournament. He improved on the previous mark by a stroke, a record that was shared by five players including Tiger Woods, who achieved the feat at the 2000 NEC Invitational.
"It doesn't really mean anything. It's nice," Perez said.
"It means you can get hot for two days. I would like to have all kind of records at the end of the week. Three-day, four-day, five-day, you know, trophy, Vegas, booze, all that stuff. That's what I want.
"So two days is nice, but I would really love to be sitting here late Sunday. So that's the goal.
"It's not really a dream, a dream would have been actually shooting in the 50s yesterday like I wanted to.
"But it's just nice. The course is set up for it, the pin placements aren't the hardest and the weather's been perfect."
Baird, meanwhile, revealed he felt his tee shot on the seventh hole, which he aced, was always going to end up close to the pin.
"I knew it was perfect when I hit it, even though I thinned it, because it was just going to be a baby nine-iron," he said.
"And as soon as I hit it I was like, I hit it thin, it was a little right of where I wanted it, it was like, 'whoa, that's going to be really good.' And it took one skip, went behind the hole and spun back into the hole. It's fun to watch.
"If I was going to draw it up that's how would I drew it up."
Baird was also delighted with his second consecutive round of 63.
"I don't care how easy the conditions are or how easy they can set up a golf course, that's a heck of a lot of birdies and you're doing a heck of a lot of things right," he added.
Collated second-round scores (USA unless stated, par 72):
(x) denotes amateurs
PGA West Nicklaus Course
124 Pat Perez 61 63
126 Briny Baird 63 63
129 Brad Adamonis 67 62, Derek Fathauer 65 64, Steve Elkington (Aus) 65 64
130 Chris Couch 67 63
131 Bo Van Pelt 66 65, Bubba Watson 62 69
132 Robert Garrigus 67 65, Mike Weir (Can) 62 70, Steve Lowery 67 65, Scott Piercy 66 66, Mark Wilson 66 66
133 Jeff Maggert 66 67, Lucas Glover 65 68
134 Nathan Green (Aus) 69 65, Olin Browne 66 68, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 63
135 Ryan Palmer 70 65, Martin Laird (Sco) 67 68, Mark Brooks 69 66, Alex Cejka (Ger) 68 67
136 Will MacKenzie 70 66, Jason Bohn 66 70
137 Eric Axley 69 68
138 Greg Owen (Eng) 69 69
139 Dustin Johnson 68 71
141 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 72 69
142 Gary Woodland 72 70
143 Peter Tomasulo 73 70, Troy Kelly 73 70, Wes Short jr. 72 71
At Bermuda Dunes GC
128 Chris Stroud 65 63, Jason Dufner 63 65
131 Rich Beem 66 65
132 David Mathis 66 66, D.J. Trahan 65 67
133 Matt Kuchar 66 67, Glen Day 65 68, John Mallinger 66 67
134 Jeff Klauk 67 67, Michael Letzig 66 68, Webb Simpson 68 66
135 Charlie Wi (Kor) 68 67, Bill Lunde 67 68, Brian Gay 65 70
136 Ken Duke 68 68
137 Chad Campbell 66 71, John Senden (Aus) 67 70
138 Charley Hoffman 72 66, Mark Calcavecchia 68 70, Jason Gore 70 68
139 Kevin Na 70 69, Justin Leonard 72 67, Corey Pavin 71 68
140 Robert Gamez 70 70
141 Tommy Armour III 70 71
142 Mike Miles 70 72, Harrison Frazar 72 70
144 Brian Davis (Eng) 72 72, James Oh (Kor) 71 73
145 Lee Janzen 74 71, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 72 73
149 Brad Faxon 77 72
Silver Rock
130 Vaughn Taylor 63 67
132 Steve Stricker 65 67
133 John Merrick 68 65, David Toms 68 65
134 Steve Marino 65 69
135 Bob Estes 66 69, Casey Wittenberg 69 66, Steve Flesch 68 67, Billy Mayfair 68 67, Cameron Beckman 68 67, Tim Clark (Rsa) 66 69
136 Kirk Triplett 67 69
137 Jerry Kelly 66 71, D.A. Points 71 66, Nick Watney 66 71, Colt Knost 69 68, Jeff Quinney 71 66, Tim Petrovic 68 69, Bobby Clampett 70 67
138 Dean Wilson 67 71
139 Billy Andrade 68 71, Michael Allen 68 71, John Huston 6970
140 Greg Chalmers (Aus) 69 71, Scott Verplank 69 71, Fred Couples 68 72
141 James Nitties (Aus) 73 68
142 Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 71 71
143 Joe Ogilvie 70 73, Donnie Hammond 72 71
144 John Rollins 71 73
148 Kris Blanks 70 78
PGA West Palmer Course
127 David Berganio Jnr. 63 64
128 Richard S Johnson (Swe) 63 65, Tom Pernice Jnr. 65 63
131 Kevin Sutherland 64 67, Cliff Kresge 68 63
132 Chris DiMarco 64 68, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 67 65, Heath Slocum 65 67, Chez Reavie 66 66, Peter Lonard (Aus) 65 67
133 Ben Crane 63 70
134 Scott McCarron 66 68, Woody Austin 66 68, Rick Price 64 70
136 Bill Haas 68 68, Brett Quigley 68 68, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 66 70, David Duval 68 68, Todd Hamilton 65 71, Nicholas Thompson 66 70
137 Brendon De Jonge 67 70, Johnson Wagner 70 67, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 65 72
138 Brian Bateman 68 70
139 Joe Durant 73 66
140 Matthew Borchert 69 71, Jonathan Byrd 70 70
141 Bart Bryant 70 71, Notah Begay III 69 72
142 Matt Bettencourt 65 77
143 Tim Herron 71 72
145 Ryan Moore 68 77
PEREZ RETAINS LEAD AFTER STRONG FINISH
Eagles RB Westbrook won’t practice, will start
PEREZ MAKES BLISTERING START
