Curtis leads Texas Open

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO

Ben Curtis can’t pick his schedule like the old days. The former British Open champion, whose status has sunk near the lowest on the PGA Tour, now waits for the phone to ring to find out whether tournaments can squeeze him in.

But heading into the weekend, at least, he’s back in control.

Wrapping up his second round at the Texas Open just before a two-hour storm delay left behind a stiff wind that protected the early leaders, Curtis shot another bogey-free 5-under 67 on Friday to finish at 10 under. He was two strokes ahead of David Mathis and three in front of Cameron Triangle and Matt Every.

Mathis matched Curtis with a 67, Triangle had a 65, and Every was poised to inch even closer before darkness suspended play. He’ll line up for an 11-foot birdie chance on the par-4 17th when second-round play resumes.

Blake Adams (69), Ryan Palmer (69) and Hunter Hass (74) were tied for fifth at 4 under.

“We’ll see how it goes over the weekend,” Curtis said. “When you’re not playing the schedule that you want, you don’t have it all laid out in front of you before the year starts, you’re kind of playing when you can. It’s hard.”

In his first time playing TPC San Antonio, Curtis has looked right at home after starting the year in Dubai and hopping around on the European Tour. The Texas Open is just his fourth PGA Tour stop because of his low conditional status following a miserable 2011, when he didn’t muster a top-10 finish for the first time since joining the tour in 2003.

That’s the year Curtis came out of nowhere to win at the British Open. He racked up two more tour victories in 2006 but hasn’t won since, and his 149th ranking on the money list last year was a career-worst.