Mid-day notes from Friday's action

-Jim Herman has opened up a comfortable three-stroke lead, after making birdie on holes 11 thru 15 Friday and posting a two-round total of 12-under par. With half the field still on the course, it looks like Robert Damron has the best chance to catch him. Damron is currently 8-under with nine holes to play, and his final nine will be Crestview's easier back nine, with eagle opportunities on the 14th and 18th.

-After opening with a sizzling 63, Casey Wittemberg leveled off with a solid but unspectacular 70 on Friday. After playing his first 16 holes at 1-over, Wittenberg needed to birdie 17 and 18 just to score under par on the round.

-Playing with Brehaut was Jose Toledo, a Guatemala native who has represented his home country in golf's World Cup. Playing on conditional Nationwide status this year after making it to the final stage of Q-School, Wichita is Toledo's third event of the year. He made the cut in Greenville, and then missed the cut in Mexico.

Following Toledo was a friend who played college golf with him, at Midland University in Fremont, NE. Toledo stayed at the school for one year before transferring to University of New Orleans. The friend said that Toledo dominated the NAIA level at Midland, winning four tournaments the year he was there.

Despite his struggles on the course, Toledo seemed to have a good time conversing with the friend throughout the round. Toledo will miss the cut, after posting rounds of 73-69.

- The devil dog from Thursday was heard again Friday, all the way on the third tee box. What's next, am I going to hear it at my hotel?

- The roars of the 17th hole were beginning to grow louder by 1 p.m., and I can't wait to hear what will be said as the afternoon wears on. "Hit it, Sally" was a favorite yesterday, even on good 40-foot putts that ended up just short. With a difficult Friday pin placement - the hole is tucked on the back-left side of the green - the crowd should have plenty of taunting opportunities.

- After Brehaut hit his heroic shot over the trees on the 4th, I remarked to the marshal about the difficulty of the shot. The marshal said the shot would have been almost impossible to pull off earlier in the year, before a bunch of trees were blown down by a tornado. He said that Brehaut may not even have found his ball, if he hit the same shot earlier in the year.

-The cut line keeps moving down, but it looks like the cut will finish at 4-under par, with an outside shot of moving to 5-under.

5-under will be safe, as 5-under is currently T31, but 4-under is currently T47 and may not be good enough at the end of the day. The top 60 and ties make the cut, and people are sure to keep birdieing, with little wind in play this afternoon. And with players still having up to 14 holes left on the course, there is a lot of golf to be played.

-Jeff Gove is struggling today, at 3-over on his round and 4-over on the tournament through 8 holes. He almost certainly will miss the cut, for his fifth missed cut in six starts, and I am conflicted about whether to watch his back nine. I feel like I should watch since I am covering him this summer, and it would be interesting to see how the eternally positive Gove handles a near-meaningless back nine - but it might be more beneficial to follow Damron, who I think has a chance to charge into the lead.

It's a tough call.

-Omar Uresti never really got it going this week, and he will miss the cut after rounds of 72-71. Not a good effort from Omar, who I thought would play well on the relatively short, twisting layout.