Venezuelan Vegas could be set to hit Tour jackpot

Rookie Vegas, the first Venezuelan to play on the PGA Tour, added a 67 to his opening 64 to lie 13-under-par. He was joined at the top of the leaderboard by former Ryder Cup player Weekley, who added a 66 to his opening 65. Weekley, who has not won on the PGA Tour since the 2008 Heritage Classic, birdied his last two holes on the Nicklaus layout.

Vegas, who reached the semi-finals of the 2007 US Amateur Championship and cruised to a six-stroke victory over Andres Romero at last year's Argentina Open, has come a long way since first picking up the game from his father in Venezuela.

"I hit plastic balls, rocks, whatever I could find and start hitting everything around the house, breaking windows and all kinds of stuff," he said. "That's kind of how my game started, just by looking at my dad. He's always been a big fan of golf and so just by looking at him I started doing it."

American duo Charles Howell and Chris Couch were a shot off the pace, with England's Brian Davis a shot further back on 11-under after a 66 on the Nicklaus Course at PGA West, one of four used for the 90-hole event.

Overnight leader Derek Lamely was five shots off the pace after struggling to a second-round 73, 10 shots worse than his opening effort.

But even that represented something of an achievement after he ran up a quintuple-bogey 9 on his second hole of the day. That came after a birdie on the first and was followed by four bogeys, an eagle and another birdie in a front nine of 41 featuring just one par, on the ninth.

To his credit, Lamely regained his composure sufficiently to play the back nine in 32 with four birdies.

Scotland's Martin Laird carded a second successive 68 to join Lamely on eight-under-par.