Ernie Els battled to a level-par 72 on Friday in the second round of the Regions Tradition at Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama and slipped to nine strokes off the lead in a share of 26th.

After starting with a bogey on the first hole in his second round, Els made a double on the third and spent the rest of the round trying to battle his way back from that setback. He birdied the fifth, but had to wait until the 12th to make his second, and the third came after that on the 13th.

But that was the sum of his scoring for the day as 18-hole leader Richard Green of Australia carded four-under 68 to remain atop the leaderboard. Green leads New Zelanad’s Steven Alker by one stroke at the halfway point of the season’s first major on PGA Tour Champions.

In a share of third on nine-under were YE Yang of Korea, American Chris DiMarco and Germany’s Alex Cejka.

Els’ compatriot Retief Goosen had a fine second round of three-under-par 69 to move to two-under for the championship and a share of 40th.