Adam Scott leads EDS Byron Nelson

His 135 was a stroke ahead of Mark Hensby , Mathew Goggin and Scott McCarron.

IRVING, Texas (AP) — Adam Scott returned to Australia after the Masters. It was a short visit.

“I felt like I was still playing good and I shouldn’t waste that at home,” Scott said.

So instead of staying home for a second week, Scott was a deadline entrant into the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, where Friday he shot a second-round 67 to take the lead at 5-under 135.

That was good for a one-stroke lead over fellow Aussies Mark Hensby (67) and Mathew Goggin (69), and Scott McCarron (66), who missed all of last season recovering from right elbow surgery.

Scott began his round with four straight birdies. Though he managed only one more to go with two bogeys, that was enough to give the only one of the world’s top 10 players at the Nelson sole possession of the lead.

“It would have been nice to get a couple more after my start,” said Scott, 10th in the latest rankings. “But I’m pretty happy.”

McCarron, who for seven months before his surgery in August 2006 played with a muscle torn away from the bone in his elbow, had a bogey-free round with a pair of birdies on each side. More encouraging was playing healthy.

“There was a long time there where I did not know if that was going to happen,” McCarron said. “I’m just happy to be playing without pain. I’m taking baby steps to get where I can play and compete again. This is a big step obviously.”

Hensby had his only two bogeys in his first three holes, during the same stretch of Scott’s birdie string. But Hensby made an 8-foot birdie at the 180-yard 13th hole and played bogey-free the rest of the round, including a 4-under 31 on the front nine.

The fairways at the redesigned TPC Four Seasons course firmed up, but wind still gusting more than 25 mph made scoring conditions tough again. The cut of 3-over 143 was the highest at the Nelson since 2000. The last time a second-round leader had a higher score was 1984.

Trevor Immelman followed his opening 78 with a 75 and became the first Masters champion since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1994 to miss the cut in his next tournament.

Ryan Moore (70), who shared the first-round lead with Goggin and Eric Axley, had five birdies and five bogeys. He dropped two strokes off the pace into a tie for fifth with Justin Leonard (bogey-free 66), Parker McLachlin (69), Charley Hoffman (68) and Roland Thatcher (68). Axley shot a 74.