Ogilvy climbs leaderboard with 2nd-round 65 at Quicken Loans

Geoff Ogilvy elected to skip U.S. Open qualifying so he could focus on the four tournaments on his schedule after Erin Hills, and the decision seems to be paying off for the 2006 U.S. Open champion.

The Aussie followed up his first-round 67 by birdieing three of the first four holes on Friday, en route to a 5-under-par 65 at the Quicken Loans National.

"Very nice to get off to a start like that," Ogilvy told pgatour.com. "You kind of want to get under (par), before you're over (par) on a course like this. It's kind of hard to catch up because it kind of beats you over the head all day."

Ogilvy would make his only bogey at the par-4 15th, but then went 3-under par over the final 12 holes, and is two shots off leader David Lingmerth.

The 40-year-old has made the most birdies this week with 12, and said the key to low scores is keeping his approach shots below the pin on the tough TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm greens.

"If you keep it under the hole here, you can be pretty aggressive. But, if you're above the hole it's really, really tough," Ogilvy said.