He spent all of Wednesday in the hospital when his wife, Sandy, came down with food poisoning.

Then Perry drummed up a little more business for the health-care profession Thursday when he hit a lady flush on the nose with his three-wood approach to the 16th hole. He also hit a man in the shoulder with his tee shot on the 13th hole.

And then came Friday. As the second round of the Buick Open dawned, fortune finally smiled on Perry. He started the day at one-under par. Eight birdies, an eagle and a bogey later, his reversal of fortune was complete. He had shot nine-under-par 63 and vaulted into a three-way tie for the lead at 10-under 134.

All this after Perry almost called it quits before he had even hit his first tee shot at Warwick Hills Golf and Country Club.

"At first I told Sandy, let's just go home, it ain't worth it, with her feeling the way she was feeling and with the way yesterday went," said Perry, the 2001 tournament champion. "I felt like the guy — everybody was staying away from me. They said, we're going to get away from you. And then to have this happen, you never know. It may be my week. It may be destiny."

First, Perry will have to distance himself from a tight leader board that boasts five former champions within two shots of each other. Perry was tied for the lead with 2003 champ Jim Furyk, who shot 68, and Brett Quigley, who shot 69.

One stroke back was 2000 champion Rocco Mediate, who shot 69 and was tied with 1988 champ Scott Verplank, who shot 69, and Brian Bateman, who shot 70. Another stroke behind that group was 1995 champ Woody Austin, who had a 71.

Jason Gore made a big move. He lit up the back nine with five straight birdies on holes 11-15 for a 30 and a 66. He was among 10 players tied at seven-under 137, including Bubba Dickerson, who aced the 191-yard eighth hole with a five-iron and shot 69, and Rich Barcelo and Jeff Brehaut, who each shot 65.

John Daly shot 70 and was in a logjam at 139 with Chris DiMarco, who shot 67.

But the day belonged to Perry, who got off to a torrid start. Starting on the 10th hole, he birdied five of his first seven holes, made the turn in 31 and played the first seven holes of the front nine in five under. A closing bogey on the ninth hole cost him the outright lead.

Perry listed two keys to his round. The first was a switch to a different putter this week. He took only 22 putts in the second round and one-putted 14 times.

"I just told myself, 'Get it on the green.' Anywhere on these greens, I've got radar on this putter today," Perry said. "I had a good shot of making a birdie. And sure enough, if I made it on the green, it was either going in or it was going to lip out. That was kind of exciting."

The other key for Perry was that, despite the rough start to the week and a first round that featured only one birdie and an eagle, he was ready to embrace any semblance of good fortune.

"I'm not afraid to go low," he said. "A lot of guys, they get three- or four-under and they want to hang on to three or four-under. I'm not satisfied with that. I want to go five-under then I want to go six, and then I want to get to 10. I'm ultimately trying to shoot 59. I would love to do that one time out here on tour."

Although he didn't reach golf's magic number, Perry was content to see plenty of red numbers on his scorecard a day after the only red he saw pretty much came from the gushing nose of the unfortunate lady he had struck.

"They sent me her name and address in my locker this morning, so when I get home next week, I'll send her flowers," Perry said. "We'll send her something, an autographed picture."