(Photo credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images)

J.T. Poston's early birdie binge helped separate him from the pack as he took the 36-hole lead at the Memorial Tournament on Friday in Dublin, Ohio.

Poston shot a 7-under-par 65, while no one else in the 72-man field scored better than a 69 during the second round at Muirfield Village Golf Club.

That lifted Poston to 9-under 135 for the tournament, with Ryan Gerard one shot behind after a 69. Sam Burns (69) stands third at 6 under and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood sits a distant fourth at 4 under following a 1-over 73.

Poston, 33, has three wins on the PGA Tour but none since October 2024. He entered the week a meager 114th in the season-long FedEx Cup standings.

None of that mattered as he shot a front-nine 31 featuring six birdies and a bogey across his first eight holes. He holed birdie putts longer than 20 feet on the first two holes and sank putts of 16, 17 and 11 feet before the first nine was through.

Poston made two more birdies on a clean back nine, including from 20 feet away at the 17th.

Gerard was one of four co-leaders after Thursday's opening round and climbed to 8 under for the tournament by posting birdies on three of his first six holes Friday. He played the final 12 holes in even par, which surely felt like a win given how difficult the course was playing.

Wyndham Clark posted a 75 and J.J. Spaun a 77 to drop to 2 under and even par, respectively, after sleeping on a share of the 18-hole lead with Gerard and Fleetwood. Meanwhile, the top two players in the world are 1 over par through 36 holes as Scottie Scheffler carded an even-par 72 and Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy struggled to a 2-over 74 on Friday.

A small handful of players missed the cut line of 5 over as the field was reduced to the top 50 players and ties. That included Jordan Spieth (6 over after a second-round 79), Jason Day of Australia (6 over), Ben Griffin (7 over), Scotland's Robert MacIntyre (7 over), Australia's Min Woo Lee (8 over) and Rickie Fowler (17 over, last place following an 82).

--Field Level Media