The Associated Press

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Harrison Frazar and Tim Petrovic have seen the discouraging side of the PGA Tour. What they haven't seen is the big paycheck that goes to a champion.

Now, both are in contention for the $720,000 winner's purse at the Phoenix Open.

Frazar, the first-round leader after a 9-under-par 62, birdied the next-to-last hole Friday for a 67 and caught up with Petrovic for the second-round lead. Petrovic had a career-low 63 to get to 13-under 129.

But Frazar, a back-nine starter, sent a 12-foot birdie putt into the center of the cup on No. 8 for the tie.

"We had a wait on the No. 13 tee, and the scoreboard is right there," said Frazar, one of the last golfers to start. "I turned and looked, and I saw that Petrovic was at 13, and I remember thinking that 13 is going to be a pretty good spot at the end of the day."

It's a new feeling for the two golfers, who aren't used to leading, let alone winning.

What they have in common is an offseason dedicated to conditioning, strengthening and putting better.

Frazar, 31, has missed the equivalent of a year of play since 1998 because of injuries that included a broken hand and hip surgery.

The 36-year-old Petrovic was an All-American at the University of Hartford in 1988, but took a circuitous road to becoming a Tour regular.

He played the Australasian and Canadian tours, sold car phones, delivered newspapers and worked at a fast-food restaurant before leading the Nationwide Tour in scoring average in 2001.

That earned him a year on the fringe of the PGA Tour, including missing Phoenix and Bay Hill because he was too low on the alternate list. But he made enough money to keep his card.

"Right now I can get into just about everything, I think," he said. "Except for the majors, and maybe Memorial will be a little tight. But you keep playing good, you'll get in everything. That's basically my theory."

Steve Stricker, Luke Donald, Scott McCarron, John Rollins and John Huston were two shots back.

Stricker, the defending Match Play champion, matched the 62 Frazar shot Thursday. McCarron had a 65, Donald and Rollins shot 66s and Huston carded a 67.

Alex Cejka and Chad Campbell shot 65s on the way to 132, where J.J. Henry also landed after a 67.

International stars and major winners Vijay Singh (66) and Retief Goosen (68) were part of a group of five at 133, assuring that some experienced players will be close enough to challenge the newcomers.

Petrovic, who had seven birdies, an eagle and a bogey, tied for 15th last week, while Jerry Kelly and Patrick Sheehan, other Hartford alumni who played at Honolulu, skipped Phoenix. It was their loss when a second day of good weather produced a bevy of red numbers.

Seventy-two players made the cut at 138, and 108 of the 132 who entered broke par.

Petrovic showed the value of his experience when he recovered from a bogey 4 on No. 12 - where he three-putted from 45 feet - with a birdie-birdie-eagle sequence to reach 12 under and pass Stricker and Donald.

He saved the best for last - his 6-iron shot from a bad bunker lie nestled on the green 18 feet from the pin, and he rolled it in for a birdie.

Frazar had two birdies before the turn and got within a shot of Petrovic with a birdie on his 12th hole, the only par-5 on the front nine.

Then he went four holes without a birdie opportunity.

"I had different shot patterns, and I wasn't as comfortable with the pin placements," he said about playing conservatively.

Stricker was anything but cautious. He had a tour-record score in mind after getting his sixth consecutive birdie with a short putt on the 15th hole.

"I was 10 under with three to play, so I was thinking if I birdied two of three I could get to 59," he said.

Instead, he parred the next hole and bogeyed the 17th, a 470-yard par-4 where an 8-iron shot he expected to go right drifted left. After a chip, he two-putted from 10 feet.

SINGAPORE MASTERS

Ernie Els overcame jet lag, searing tropical heat and distracting cell phones to take the second-round lead Friday in the Singapore Masters.

The South African star, coming off consecutive PGA Tour victories in Hawaii, completed the rain-delayed first round with a 3-under 69 and shot a 67 in the second for an 8-under 136 total.

The temperature hovered around 90 degrees, with relative humidity averaging 77.5 percent.

"You just keep grinding away and the heat gets to you after a little while, so I'll go relax and hopefully get over the jet lag," Els said.

With a huge gallery following him, Els complained about the number of cell phones that rang during play.

"They got some weird tunes over here," he said. "We're out here to play golf and we're trying to take it quite seriously. It's a problem wherever you go - the States, Europe. People like having cell phones with them and have it on."

He swept the PGA Tour's Hawaii events the last two weeks to become the first player since Steve Jones in 1989 to win the tour's first two tournaments of the year.

"It's a new week. Obviously, this week I have to deal with the jet lag," he said. "But I'm striking the ball as well as I have been the last two weeks."

Defending champion Arjun Atwal of India was a stroke back along with countryman Jeev Milkha Singh and Scotland's Simon Yates. Atwal finished off a 67 and shot a 70 in the second round. Singh shot a 71 in the second round, and Yates had a 69.

Darkness suspended play with 21 players left on the course. They will complete the round Saturday morning.

Els, No. 2 behind Tiger Woods in the world rankings, completed his opening round in the morning before heading out a half-hour later to begin his second on a hot, cloudless day at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club.

The South African began play Friday with his approach shot on the 445-yard, par-4 16th. After his last shot Thursday - a 2-iron tee shot that sailed 250 yards to the middle of the fairway - the Big Easy failed to capitalize and finished with a par.

He then dropped two strokes after hitting into the water on the 202-yard, par-3 17th.

"Seventeen was my first full shot I had to play," Els said. "I hit a decent shot, just came off the 6-iron a bit, came up about 2 feet short and didn't carry the water."

Els got off to good start in the second round with an eagle on the par-5, 547-yard 11th - his second hole of the round. He hit a 4-iron 220 yards to set up a 20-foot pitch.

He failed the capitalize on birdie chances on his last three holes, with the longest of them 11 feet from the cup.

"I've hit a lot of greens this week. I'm just not getting the speed of them and that is quite frustrating," Els said.

China's Liang Wen-Chong became the first player to be disqualified from a PGA European Tour event for using a non-conforming driver.

"Liang Wen-Chong was found to be using a driver, a Mizuno 300 SII, that contravened the new rules, which were brought into effect on Jan. 1, 2003. He was unaware of the contravention," tournament organizers said in announcing the disqualification.

Liang's driver produces a spring-like effect off the clubface that exceeds standards recently adopted by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA European Tour and Asian PGA Tour.

SENIOR SKINS

Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Hall Irwin will compete today and Sunday in the made-for-TV Championship Skins exhibition at Wailea Golf Club (Ch. 9, 2; 3-6 p.m. today, noon-2 p.m. Sunday).

"I would say that certainly one thing that has made Nicklaus, Palmer and Trevino so successful is the fact that they are uncompromising in their efforts," said Irwin, the three-time defending champion. "They all have great charisma, enviable playing records, and without a doubt are three of the greatest men to ever play the game.

"It's an honor to be on the same course with them," the 2002 Champions Tour Player of the Year said.

Rick George was named president of the Champions Tour, which also announced a five-year deal with the Golf Channel to become the exclusive cable carrier of the tour's events from 2004-08.