Lucas Glover carded a bogey-free 64 on Friday to move into the lead at 10-under, marking his sixth consecutive round in the 60s and his 20th consecutive round of par or better on Tour.
"I'm hitting good putts. I just think the putting green is a tick faster, and it took a little while to get used to it, and I think a lot of guys that have played here a lot got a little residual effect.
"You see these downhill, downgrainers that in the past you feel like you could putt off the green, and you've got to hit them now, and it's hard to just mentally get over that hump of I can be firm with this one even though it's downgrain, downhill. I had a few of those today. I just read them perfect and left them right in the mouth short, but that's just from experience here from the past.
"But they're drying up. They'll be fast come the weekend."
With a win in the FedEx St. Jude Championship he could become the first back-to-back winner on Tour since Tony Finau in 2022 (3M Open/Rocket Mortgage Classic).
The American's best finish so far at this event, and in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, was T3 in 2022. He entered the week at No. 49 in the FedExCup and is projected No. 3 after round two of the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
In his 11th consecutive FedExCup Playoffs appearance, American Jordan Spieth posted a second-round 68 moving down into second place at 9-under.
South Korea's Sungjae Im shot 65 for a share of third place at 8-under alongside fellow countryman Tom Kim (bogey-free 68), England's Tommy Fleetwood (66), Argentina's Emiliano Grillo (67) and Taylor Moore of the United States (66).
"It was hot," said Fleetwod. "Clearly, like conditions bring their own challenge physically. It's very, very hot. Having said that, when we teed off and for the majority of the round early on, it was very calm. It was warm. If you can put it in the fairway, we're playing preferred lies, so it was great conditions to actually score.
"Got tougher when the wind came and the wind started swirling a little bit, but overall, yeah, it was just a day where you just keep plodding along. I wasn't doing anything particularly fast, just keep going and try and stay in rhythm and keep hitting shots."
