English leads at Torrey Pines

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Harris English opened a two shot lead in the Farmers Insurance Open after shooting a bogey free second round on Friday.

Starting on the front nine, the American birdied the first, seventh and ninth holes on his way out. He birdied again at the first hole after the turn, before firing two more on the 14th and 17th holes.

The six-under 66 sees Harris on 10-under, having climbed up from tenth overnight after a first round 68.

English had a difficult year in 2014, leading him to change his swing coach. However, English credits his improving results to change in philosophy rather than a change of swing.

“When you start struggling, it’s easy to try to find stuff that’s wrong with your game, wrong with your swing,” he told the PGA Tour website.

“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.”

He leads compatriot Nick Watney, who surged up the leaderboard from 50th to second after carding a seven-under 65 for the joint lowest score of the round.

Watney is joined on eight-under by Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas and Scotland’s Martin Laird, who are tied with him for second place after shooting 69 and 68 respectively on Friday.

Nicholas Thompson had a one shot lead heading into round two after firing a eight-under 64 on Thursday, but a one-over 73 on Friday saw him drop to fifth on the leaderboard on seven-under.

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