KJ Choi tightened his grip on the Sony Open with a superb putting display and birdies on the final three holes which moved the South Korean two shots clear of the field at the halfway stage.

Choi had taken a one stroke lead into the second round before firing a five-under-par 65 in breezy conditions at Waialae Country Club to post an 11-under 129 aggregate.
   
That left him one ahead of Korean-born Kevin Na (64) and three shots in front of American Steve Marino, who birdied the last for a 67 in the second PGA Tour event of the season.
   
PGA Tour veteran Fred Funk was a further stroke back at seven under after eagling his final hole for a 64, finishing level with fellow American Jimmy Walker (68).
   
"I'm playing well right now," said world number nine Choi. "My rhythm overall is really good and getting a lot of support from the fans is really making me feel comfortable. On this course, the winds are constant and I think I'm adjusting myself well in the conditions
   
"And the shots that I'm hitting here since last year, the cut shots, are really helping out."
   
Bidding for his seventh PGA Tour title, Choi birdied the 12th and 15th to reach the turn in two under 33. Although he bogeyed the par-four second after driving into the right rough and over-hitting the green with his approach, he tightened his grip with four birdies over the closing stretch.
   
Judging the speed of his putts perfectly, he rolled in a 10-footer at the fifth and a 12-footer at the seventh before getting to 10 under overall after hitting his second shot into the eighth green to five feet.
   
Although his drive at the par-five ninth trickled into the first cut of rough, he struck a superb three-wood from 239 yards to 20 feet and calmly two-putted for birdie.
   
World number four Jim Furyk, the 1996 champion, carded a 70 to lie nine strokes off the pace, level with 2005 winner Vijay Singh (68).
   
Eighty-seven players made the cut, which fell at level-par 140, but only 69 qualified for the weekend on one-under or better under a new PGA Tour policy introduced this season to limit the field size for the last two rounds.
   
US Open champion Angel Cabrera and twice major winner John Daly were among those who failed to advance.
   
"It's a stupid rule, I'm sorry," Daly told the Golf Channel.

Collated scores and totals after the second round of the US PGA Tour Sony Open in Hawaii,
Waialae CC, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

(US unless stated, par 72):

129 KJ Choi (Kor) 64 65

131 Kevin Na (Kor) 67 64

132 Steve Marino 65 67

133 Jimmy Walker 65 68, Fred Funk 69 64

134 Brad Adamonis 66 68, Jerry Kelly 67 67, Brian Gay 67 67, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 67, Heath Slocum 65 69, Chez Reavie 68 66

135 Spencer Levin 67 68, Pat Perez 69 66, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 66 69, James Driscoll 66 69, Chad Campbell 66 69, Bob Estes 69 66, Jay Williamson 67 68, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 67 68

136 Steve Stricker 71 65, Mitsuhiro Tateyama (Jpn)66 70, J.P. Hayes 66 70, Kenneth Ferrie (Eng) 66 70, Dustin Johnson 68 68, Jim McGovern 71 65, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 70 66, John Riegger 67 69, Douglas Labelle 67 69, Troy Matteson 69 67, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn)68 68, Briny Baird 68 68

137 Vaughn Taylor 67 70, Daisuke Maruyama (Jpn)68 69, Matthew Jones (Aus) 68 69, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl)68 69, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 66 71, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 69 68, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn)68 69, Shane Bertsch 71 66, Dudley Hart 68 69, Robert Gamez 67 70, Zach Johnson 67 70, Matt Kuchar 70 67, Tom Pernice Jnr. 70 67, Kevin Streelman 68 69, Mark Wilson 72 65, Chad Collins 67 70

138 Paul Azinger 70 68, Jason Allred 69 69, John Merrick 69 69, Steve Lowery 66 72, Tom Lehman 70 68, Jeff Maggert 69 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 68, J.B. Holmes 68 70, Jim Furyk 68 70, Cameron Beckman 67 71, Stephen Ames (Can) 70 68

139 Patrick Sheehan 71 68, Kiyoshi Miyazato (Jpn)69 70, Bubba Watson 70 69, Parker McLachlin 73 66, John Mallinger 67 72, George McNeill 68 71, Mark Calcavecchia 68 71, Sean O'Hair 69 70, Scott Sterling 70 69, Martin Laird 69 70, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 69 70

140 Robert Garrigus 67 73, Bart Bryant 69 71, Kyle Thompson 69 71, Bob Sowards 69 71, Charles Howell III 69 71, John Daly 72 68, Keiichiro Fukabori (Jpn)71 69, Roland Thatcher 69 71, Jon Mills (Can) 69 71, Ryuji Imada (Jpn)68 72, Eric Axley 72 68, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 70, Kevin Stadler 70 70, John Huston 73 67, Jonathan Byrd 71 69, Brandt Snedeker 68 72, Tommy Gainey 73 67, D.J. Trahan 69 71

---------------Following players missed the cut----------------------------------

141 Jeff Quinney 73 68, John Senden (Aus) 72 69, Billy Mayfair 71 70, Todd Demsey 67 74, Ted Purdy 70 71, Brenden Pappas (Rsa) 71 70, Brian Bateman 68 73, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 72, Kenny Perry 70 71, Nathan Green (Aus) 68 73, Travis Perkins (USA) 67 74, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 71, Tim Petrovic 68 73, Boo Weekley 69 72, Carlos Franco (Par) 72 69

142 Kent Jones 70 72, Brad Elder 71 71, Steve Flesch 72 70, Ronald Whittaker 73 69, Dean Wilson 71 71, Will MacKenzie 69 73, Shaun Micheel 74 68, Ryan Armour 70 72, Olin Browne 70 72

143 Cody Freeman 71 72, Alex Aragon 69 74, Peter Lonard (Aus) 73 70, Jason Day (Aus) 73 70, Paul Claxton 70 73, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 73, Paul Goydos 70 73, Craig Kanada 69 74, Bryce Molder 70 73

144 Tadd Fujikawa 74 70, Bill Haas 74 70, Alex Ching 72 72, Rocco Mediate 69 75

145 Jonathan Kaye 72 73, Jeff Overton 68 77, Omar Uresti 72 73, Tag Ridings 74 71, Nick Flanagan (Aus) 73 72, J sae Park 70 75, Marc Turnesa 73 72, Jason Gore 69 76

146 Michael Letzig 74 72, Kaname Yokoo (Jpn)75 71, Brett Wetterich 68 78, Nicholas Thompson 71 75

147 Brian Davis (Eng) 71 76, Jeff Sluman 73 74, Bo Van Pelt 72 75

149 Tom Scherrer 74 75

150 David Lutterus (Rsa) 74 76, Justin Bolli 73 77

152 Kevin Hayashi (Jpn) 81 71