DULUTH, GA. ? Steve Elkington hasn’t forgotten how it feels to win. He’s in position to experience it again.

Elkington, whose last victory on the PGA Tour came in 1999, was 11-under par and tied for the lead with Phil Mickelson at the midway point of the BellSouth Classic on Friday.

The 39-year-old Australian, who led by a stroke after the first round, shot a 3-under 69 to maintain a share of the top spot at 133 on the grueling TPC at Sugarloaf course.

This is rare territory for Elkington, who’s missed the cut in four of eight tournaments this year and has only four top-10 finishes since the start of the 2000 season.

“I like winning,” he said. “I haven’t had many opportunities, but I do appreciate them when I get them. I’d like to do well here on Saturday and Sunday.”

It wasn’t always this way. Elkington was a major contender through most of the 1990s; his 10 victories during the decade included The Players Championship twice and the ’95 PGA Championship.

Injuries slowed Elkington the past two seasons, knocking him out of the top 100 on the money list.

“I’m only 39,” he said. “I have plenty of time. I feel fit now, and I feel I have a lot of good golf in me. I am strong. I am big. I hit it plenty far … and I’ve got all that experience now.”

Starting on the back side, Elkington birdied three of his first four holes. He blasted out of the sand for a short putt at 10, the longest hole on the course at 608 yards. He sank a 20-foot putt at 12, followed by a 15-footer at the 13th.

Elkington had just one birdie and one bogey the rest of the way, settling into a par groove.

Mickelson, who opened with a 65, played the first 32 holes of the tournament without a bogey.

He got to 12 under, then three-putted back-to-back greens before finishing with a 68.

“I played well,” Mickelson said. “The golf course is playing a little bit harder because the greens are getting just a little slicker. But it’s a very fair test. I’m not disappointed with 4 under.”

The most interesting group of the day included Retief Goosen and Jesper Parnevik. Both had a pair of eagles, and Parnevik made a hole-in-one at No. 8 with a 5-iron from 217 yards. That shot, he quipped, wasn’t as memorable as the hole-in-one he made in a 1995 tournament in China.

“Heineken was sponsoring the tournament and gave me free beer for a year,” he said.

Parnevik finished with a 69 and a 135 total, two strokes off the lead.

Goosen, the U.S. Open champion, was tied for third with Padraig Harrington at 134 after a 66. The South African eagled the par-5 sixth, then holed a lob wedge from 50 feet at the short 13th.

Dougherty leads Legends

St. Augustine, Fla. Ed Dougherty birdied the final two holes for a 6-under 66 and a one-stroke lead over Hale Irwin after the first round of the Legends of Golf.

Allen Doyle, Wayne Levi, Jim Dent, Vicente Fernandez, Tom Wargo and Bob Gilder opened with 68s on The King & Bear Course.

Petterson paces Portuguese

Faro, Portugal Sweden’s Carl Petterson was 8 under through six holes when strong wind forced the suspension of play in the second round of the Portuguese Open.

Petterson, who had a six-stroke lead over England’s Gary Evans and Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth, was one of 80 players who were unable to complete the second round.