Holmes holds clubhouse lead over Garcia, Mickelson

J.B. Holmes is a long hitter. More importantly this week at the PGA Championship, he's a straight hitter.

Holmes birdied three consecutive holes on the back nine and then hung on to shoot a 2-under 68 to post the target score late in the second round of the PGA Championship on Friday.

The 26-year-old Kentuckian got into the clubhouse at 1-under 139. Then the fun began for a star-studded leaderboard at Oakland Hills.

Sergio Garcia and Phil Mickelson matched him at 1 under midway through their rounds. Garcia, coming off an opening 69, briefly took the lead with an early birdie but fell back and was 1 under through eight holes.

Mickelson, chasing his second PGA Championship and fourth major title overall, started the day at even par and got to 1 under with a birdie at the par-4 fifth. He remained at 1 under through six holes.

In the clubhouse at even par were Ben Curtis, Justin Rose and Charlie Wi. Curtis and Rose shot tournament-low 67s, with Wi posting his second consecutive 70.

Aaron Baddeley had a one-hole flirtation with 2 under but dropped two strokes to par in the next three holes and made the turn at even par for the tournament.

"Hitting it straight is a big advantage," said Holmes, who called his 68 probably his best ball-striking round of the year. "It makes it a lot harder to hit fairways when the wind is blowing like this. You've got to hit it right down the middle and you can't really attack these greens from the rough."

The course remained dry, with the greens growing ever faster in the sun and blustery, cool wind. After the average score was almost five shots over par in the weather-delayed first round, it appeared birdies were even harder to come by.

"The conditions were much tougher than I expected this morning, so I was happy that I was still able to go out and put together a decent score," Rose said. "The putter was the key to the round. I putted pretty well yesterday, but the greens were spiked up, so I was excited about what I would be able to do in fresher conditions today."

First-round co-leaders Jeev Milkha Singh and Robert Karlsson had their problems after opening with 68s.

In one four-hole span, Singh had three bogeys and a par and was at 1 over midway through his round.

Karlsson began his round with four straight bogeys and was 6 over for the day and 4 over for the tournament through 11 holes.