WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - A month after sharing the 36-hole lead and then collapsing at the St. Jude Classic in Memphis, Sebastian Munoz is trying another mental approach for what could be a special weekend.
The PGA Tour rookie isn't sharing the lead with anybody this time after two rounds of the Greenbrier Classic. By posting a 3-under-par 67 Friday to move to 12-under 128, Munoz leads the field by three shots.
One, he is creating some post-round diversions. Thursday night, he watched "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" at The Greenbrier's hotel theater.
"Great movie," he said. "Today, I'm going to try some falconry. Sounds pretty interesting."
He wasn't going to duplicate his first-round 61, but he started out hot on Friday. Playing the back nine first, he fired four birdies in the first seven holes for a 32, equaling his Thursday effort.
So he is 8 under on the back nine through two days, with two birdies on the 10th and 16th holes. Greenbrier Classic winners typically score well on that side.
"[The back nine] has a couple of tough holes; 13 is a good one, tough driving home," he said. "Then 11 is also pretty long. I just managed to keep it simple on the tough holes and get my wedges close, dialed in."
He had two hiccups on the front nine. On the unique par-3 No. 3, he hit into the "Valley of Sin" between the front and back of the large green, a place that almost always means a three-putt, and Munoz complied. He faced 26 feet for par after putting out of the valley.
He also bogeyed the difficult par-4 sixth, but rebounded with a birdie on the downhill seventh.
He only hit five of 14 fairways, but he was solid on his approaches and even better on the green, third hole notwithstanding. He hit one-putts of 30, 22, 20 and 15 feet, and made a 13-footer from the fringe at the seventh.
"My short game is good, my putting is good, I'm getting the most out of my round," he said. "That's been a problem all year. Excited to [try to] get the drive in the fairway for the next couple days."
Ben Martin and Hudson Swafford stand tied for second at 9 under, riding rounds of 67 and 66, respectively. Both have won one Tour event - Martin in 2015 at Las Vegas and Swafford this season's CareerBuilder Challenge at La Quinta, California.
Swafford had a bogey-free round with two birdies in the last three holes, hitting his tee shot on the par-3 18th within 7 feet of the pin. He has struggled at times since his win in January, missing eight of 15 cuts since.
"I've actually been working pretty hard and maybe trying to work too hard on it and getting too far ahead," he said. "Kind of grinding myself into a hole, getting tired."
Martin overcame a three-putt bogey on the 11th hole, his second hole of the day. His highlight may have come on the par-3 third, when he hit out of a bunker to a tightly placed hole, getting within 9 feet and making the par putt.
"I don't think I had quite the control I had yesterday [when he shot a 64], but still got it in the house at 67," he said.
Davis Love III and defending champion Danny Lee are tied with Russell Henley at 8 under. Henley's 64 tied for the low round of the day with Jamie Lovemark, Nick Watney and James Hahn.
Lovemark is one of five at 7 under, joining Kelly Kraft, rookie Xander Schauffele, Nick Taylor and Robert Streb.
The 53-year-old Love slipped from his second-place perch, grinding to a 69 after his first-round 63 Thursday. He had a tough time on the greens, needing 31 putts.
Still, he recorded his 19th sub-70 round at the Classic, tops among all tournament entrants. He has played here all seven times.
"I got it in under par, but I probably played better than that," Love said. "Three three-putts are disappointing. The greens aren't that big, but I had three long putts that yesterday looked like they were going in, or had tap-ins. Left a few of them, 4- or 5-footers coming back.
"Three-putts kill you, and that just ruined my momentum."
Playing the back nine first, Lee recovered from a messy double bogey on the par-5 12th. He put his drive in the fairway bunker on the right, which has proved as devilish as any on the redesigned Old White TPC layout.
"It was a big 'ouch' for me," said Lee, who topped fellow competitors Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson. "I decided to do a driver off the deck and I overfaded and into the bunker, forced myself to lay up from there.
"Kind of made silly mistakes, but I knew there was a lot of birdie opportunities out there for me. I didn't panic at that time and just kept playing."
Seventy-four players made the cut of 1 under. Included in that list - for the first time in four tries - was Phil Mickelson, who hit the number despite his 72.
He'll have an early tee time, but at least he will have one.
Munoz will have a tee time at 2 p.m., perhaps a few minutes earlier. He believes he learned a lot from his misadventure in Memphis.
"I feel like Memphis taught me that maybe I was caring too much, trying to hit too many perfect shots all the time," Munoz said.
Contact Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsmock@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dougsmock and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/dougsmock/.