Kyle Stanley leads Farmers Insurance Open by one shot

Reporting from La Jolla -- Kyle Stanley said his game plan is to play boring golf, which might not be the best slogan to sell the PGA Tour.

But it is working for Stanley, a 24-year-old from Gig Harbor, Wash., who has a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

Stanley shot a second-round 68 on Friday on the tougher South Course for a two-day total of 14-under-par 130. He is a stroke ahead of Brandt Snedeker (64), who had hip surgery less than three months ago; and two shots ahead of tour rookie Sang-Moon Bae (67) of South Korea and Martin Flores (67), who earned his way back onto the tour after spending 2011 on the second-tier Nationwide Tour.

Three-time winner Phil Mickelson, who finished second last year, shot a second-round 68 but failed to make the cut with his two-round total of one-over 145. Also missing the cut was Robert Garrigus, who finished tied for second last week in the Humana Challenge at La Quinta.

Stanley did not play totally boring golf at Torrey Pines, where the backdrop of blue skies, waves crashing on the beach and whales and dolphins frolicking in the Pacific Ocean was picture perfect.

Stanley had a double-bogey on the par-four 14th hole and a bogey on the par-three 16th, a short period of uncertainty that Stanley compared to having the hiccups.

His worst mistake was on the 437-yard 14th hole, where Stanley sent his second shot, a seven-iron, over the green.

“I probably should have hit an eight-iron,” he said. “A mental error.”

Even with all the good scoring happening around the course, Stanley said the double-bogey did not shatter his confidence.

“I kept telling myself I was playing well,” he said. “I’ve played too much good golf this week to let one hole get in the way.”

Snedeker is happy that two hip surgeries in the last two years have not gotten in the way of his game.

The 31-year-old from Nashville had congenital issues that caused torn labrums in both hips. He had the left hip repaired in 2010 and the right hip in November.

Even with the pain that came with the damage, Snedeker has had more rounds of 64 or better on the PGA Tour than anyone else since the start of the 2011 season. He had his seventh Friday with a 64.

Snedeker is off to a fast start this season. He finished tied for eighth in the Humana Challenge with an effort that included a stretch of six straight birdies during the third round. Friday on the North Course, Snedeker had a run of five straight birdies.

“I get on streaks,” Snedeker said. “I’m a streaky player. When I get hot, I play well for a couple of weeks and then it kind of goes away. I sure try to get out of my own way when I get on those streaks.

Stanley is in his second full year on the PGA Tour and is looking for his first tournament win. He almost had it last July at the John Deere Classic before Steve Stricker sank a putt from off the green on the 18th hole and beat Stanley by a stroke.

That loss didn’t demoralize Stanley.

“If anything,” he said, “I took some positives from it. I had kind of been struggling up to that point. I think I made more money that week than I had thus far, so it was good.”

He is aiming for a bigger paycheck this week.

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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