Anirban Lahiri among four La Quinta leaders

Dufner, looking to rediscover the form that won him the PGA Championship in 2013, capped a flawless round with a birdie at his final hole, the par-four ninth, to grab a share of the lead.

Leading Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri dropped two positions to be tied third after scoring four-under 68 in the second round of the $5,800,000 CareerBuilder Challenge in California. Loupe had a 66 on the Stadium Course, and Hadwin a 66 at La Quinta. The 38-year-old carded a 30 on the front nine thanks to six birdies, including three straight from Nos.

The rotation of three courses will be completed tomorrow before the event focuses on the PGA West Stadium Course for the final round on Sunday.

Canadian Adam Hadwin, 28, is a two-time Web.com and MacKenzie (PGA Canada) Tour victor.

Defending champion Bill Haas is also off to an excellent 36-hole start with back-to-back scores of 66 to enter the weekend three shots behind Dufner. “If I hit it the way I’ve been hitting it, driving it in play, I think there’s a lot of birdie opportunities still”.

“Any time I’m inside of 130 yards I feel pretty good”, Dufner said. Lovemark hopes to get where Dufner is, and perhaps beyond. “That’s part of life, so now I’m trying to just roll with it and get back to working and playing”. “Because then, in 2009, I had a really nice season, (and) that’s kind of when I started playing some good golf”. The Stadium Course had a stroke average of 71.029 in ideal scoring conditions the first two days, almost two shots higher than the Nicklaus and La Quinta layouts.

“My last two years have been disappointing to me”, Mickelson said in a story posted by sponsor KPMG. He made a double bogey at the sixth hole from the left rough, eventually missing a 4-foot putt for bogey.

But back problems hampered him as he bounced back and forth from the PGA and Nationwide tours.

“I remember a lot of the shots and how the course played”, Dufner said. Things changed dramatically on day two, with the 33-year-old vaulting 67 places on the leaderboard to T24 following a nine-birdie against one double-bogey effort.

“It’s been a lot more drastic process than I thought it would be”, Mickelson, 45, admitted.

Five men are a shot further back on 12 under, including Jason Gore, whose eight-under 64 on the Tournament Course was the best round of the day.

Five-time major champion Phil Mickelson headlined a group sharing eighth on 133 after a 65 on the Nicklaus Tournament Course.