Harris English carded a bogey-free 66 over Torrey Pines’ North Course to lead the Farmers Insurance Open by two shots from Nick Watney, Jhonattan Vegas and Martin Laird.

English played a supremely solid round to finish 36 holes at the head of the pack. He made three birdies on the par-5s on Friday, and another three birdies saw him post a six-under-par 66 to add to the 68 he carded over the South Course on day 1.

English is enjoying a return to form after a difficult 2014.

“When you start struggling, it’s easy to try to find stuff that’s wrong with your game, wrong with your swing,” he said. “I definitely was more swing-oriented than playing golf. That’s not me. That’s not how I grew up playing the game. You’re standing over shots thinking about swing positions instead of trying to see your ball flight and trying to play golf. That’s what I was doing the latter half of the year, it was really frustrating.”

Scotland’s Martin Laird shares second place. He posted a second straight 68 to go into the weekend two shots behind on eight-under-par.

Following Tiger Woods withdrawal on Thursday, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Justin Rose will also be missing over the weekend. All three missed the cut. For Mickelson, it’s the first time since 2002 that he has missed consecutive cuts on the PGA Tour. The five-time Major champion blamed his poor scoring on troubles with the flat-stick.

“My putting was beyond pathetic,” he said. “If I can’t get back to the levels of 2013, I’m not sure what I’m going to do.”

Overnight leader Nicholas Thompson struggled over the more difficult South Course. He carded a 73 to fall back into fifth place.

England’s Ian Poulter fired a 71 on the South Course to sit in sixth place, tied with nine others.

Farmers Insurance Open – Day 2 Scores
Torrey Pines GC (South), San Diego, California
Feb 5-8, purse: $6,300,000, par: 72

1    Harris English (USA)        68    66    134
T2    Nick Watney (USA)        71    65    136
T2    Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)        67    69    136
T2    Martin Laird (Sco)        68    68    136
5    Nicholas Thompson (USA)    64    73    137    
T6    Chad Campbell (USA)        67    71    138
T6    Spencer Levin (USA)        68    70    138
T6    Marc Leishman (Aus)        72    66    138    
T6    Michael Thompson (USA)    65    73    138
T6    Jason Day (Aus)            73    65    138
T6    Ian Poulter (Eng)            67    71    138
T6    Jimmy Walker (USA)        72    66    138
T6    Daniel Berger (USA)        70    68    138
T6    Lucas Glover (USA)        70    68    138
T6    Andres Gonzalez (USA)        69    69    138

Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage