McNeill's putter shines after a quick lesson

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George McNeill fired a 4-under 68 at Quail Hollow on Friday to soar into contention.

CHARLOTTE -- He just hit a bad shot.

George McNeill wasn't about to blame that bogey on his final hole to the fact that he had just noticed his name alone atop the leaderboard at the Quail Hollow Championship for the first time on Friday.

Besides, he's still only one shot off the lead -- tied at 7 under with Jim Furyk, Zach Johnson and none other than world No. 1 Tiger Woods so McNeill he knows he's in good company. Retief Goosen and Bubba Watson set the pace after a topsy-turvey afternoon.

At the same time, though, McNeill hasn't seen the upper echelon of the leaderboard many times this season. The Florida State product tied for seventh in his season-opener, but he hasn't finished higher than 22nd in nine events since.

"Yeah, this is a little different than what I've been doing, fighting the cut line the last few weeks," McNeill agreed.

"I've been working on some things in all of my game, and they haven't really all shown up yet. But again, there's a lot of time left, but I see pieces of it here and there, and it's fun when it does happen right."

He does have success at Quail Hollow to fall back on -- sort of. McNeill was tied for third at the midway point of last year's tournament, three behind Jason Bohn, but he went on to shoot 76 on Saturday and tumbled back to 22nd.

"I think I three-putted five times," McNeill recalled. "So that obviously will not help your score. ... But like I said, I feel a lot more comfortable with my putting, so I don't know, I'll just figure it out when I get there."

The 33-year-old Floridian had battled the flat stick most of the year. But a lesson last week from a friend, Kevin Weeks, appears to be paying dividends. McNeill has used 28 and 29 putts in the first two rounds in Charlotte.

"I've known Kevin for a long time," McNeill said. "But he helped me out last week, and I putted better. It feels more comfortable this week, but again, it's not there yet. Obviously I see signs of improvement, and that's all we're looking for."

The key was changing McNeill's set-up. His hands were too low which had a ripple affect as he moved the putter through the ball.

"I had the toe in the air, and I was real handsy with my stroke, so I wasn't using my body, my shoulders, my chest like I should," McNeill explained. "(The change) almost frees up my stroke and allows me to release the club and not manufacture a stroke, just kind of let it happen naturally."

Weeks also works with Mark Wilson, and a week after one of their recent collaborations, the UNC grad won the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya-Cancun.

McNeill, who likes the shorter rough at Quail Hollow, birdied all four of the par 5s on Friday -- two-putting both of the ones on the front side and chipping to 5 feet and an inch on the back. His other birdie putts came from 6 and 8 feet.

"Not having rough makes it play a little easier, I think, just because if you hit it in the rough you can play out of it," McNeill said. "But also, me personally, I'm getting a lot of fliers out of the rough. So you've got to play for it.

"If it's into the wind, if it's downwind, if you've got to carry a bunker, carry water, what have you, it makes it interesting. ... Anybody can hack it out of the rough and have a wedge in, and probably you'd see a lot more pars if the rough were up higher.

"But with the greens firming up, the breezy conditions, especially this afternoon, what they're calling for, they're firming up and spiking up and everything else, it'll get fun."

McNeill will have a lot of fun if he hangs tough this weekend and wins his second PGA TOUR event on Sunday. For that to happen, he needs to build on the confidence he's gained in the first two rounds.

"Everybody says you should think about winning from day one, but you can't win on day one," McNeill said. "You can lose on day one but you can't win. I'm trying to get a little more of that attitude versus just, okay, where am I, what's the cut, am I two ahead of the cut line, I've got four holes left, let me just try and make a couple pars.

"Instead, now I'm trying to go, okay, I'm two inside the cut line, I need to make two or three more birdies and that moves me up even further and gives me a later tee time on Saturday and Sunday."

McNeill's halfway to that goal.