ASSOCIATED PRESS Dean Wilson of Kaneohe watched his tee shot sail down the 10th fairway during the second round of the John Deere Classic yesterday.

Wilson hangs in

SILVIS, Ill. » Dean Wilson knows he left a couple of birdies out on the course yesterday.

All he can do in today's third round is hope he plays as well as he did from tee to green in the second round of the $4 million John Deere Classic and get some more putts to drop.

Wilson, the 36-year-old Castle graduate who is looking for his first PGA Tour win, shot a 2-under 69 yesterday to put himself at 6 under halfway through the tournament.

He entered today in a 15-way tie for 15th place. Wilson still has a chance to win, but he has to make a move.

"(Putting's) been really good lately," Wilson said. "I just couldn't get those last two in."

He narrowly missed birdie putts of 7 and 15 feet on holes No. 17 and 18 that would've put him within two strokes of Joe Ogilvie, the leader at 10 under.

Daniel Chopra, Kris Cox, John Senden and John Huston were all one shot behind Ogilvie.

Wilson made birdie putts of 7, 11 and 9 feet, respectively, on holes No. 5, 8 and 14.

He was scheduled to tee off today at 4:12 a.m. Hawaii time, with Jason Gore and John Riegger.

With the leaderboard crowded at the top, Wilson knows he needs a great round today to get into contention.

"Guys are going low," he said. "I gotta shoot 7 under tomorrow, at the minimum, to get in there and win the tournament."

It's possible. Wilson shot a 64 in the first round of the Nissan Open earlier this year, on his way to a seventh-place tie.

His best score here is a 66 in the 2004 second round.

What he doesn't want is a carbon-copy repeat of his 2005 performance at Deere Run.

Wilson made the cut in good form last year, at 6 under (with the same first- and second-round scores as this year), but finished the tournament at even par in 70th place with consecutive 3-over 74s on Saturday and Sunday.