Perthshire, Scotland (My Sportsbook) - Paul Lawrie, the 1999 British Open Champion, managed a three-under 69 on Friday to extend his lead to two shots midway through the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.

Lawrie, the first-round leader by a stroke, finished two rounds at eight-under 136 and is two clear at the Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel, the site of the 2014 Ryder Cup.

Jonathan Caldwell (66), Maarten Lafeber (67) and Daniel Vancsik (69) share second place at six-under 138.

Two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal (68), Gregory Bourdy (69), Soren Hansen (70), Michael Jonzon (69) and Shiv Kapur are tied for fifth at minus- five.

None of those players have come close to playing as well as Lawrie has through the first two rounds.

Lawrie has yet to make a bogey in 36 holes and the two rounds haven't featured easy conditions. A heavy rainstorm on Thursday, coupled with more rain overnight has made the course extremely difficult.

"The course is playing long," said Lawrie. "There's no roll on the ball at all. The yardage you get, is the yardage it's playing. It'll be the same over the weekend I'm sure."

Lawrie began on the 10th tee Friday and parred his first two holes. He broke into red figures with a birdie at the 12th, his second birdie in as many rounds at the par four.

The Scotsman made it two in a row with a birdie at 13 and he was seven-under par for the championship.

Lawrie surrendered the outright lead to Kapur, who netted three birdies and a pitch-in eagle through his first 10 holes. Kapur got to eight-under par and Lawrie joined him at that number after a long birdie putt at the par-three fourth.

Kapur collapsed midway through his second nine. He bogeyed the par-four third and triple-bogeyed No. 4 to fall down the leaderboard and leave Lawrie ahead by himself.

Lawrie played steady golf over his final five holes and only found the slightest hint of trouble at the eighth. He knocked his approach to the back of the green, but he got up and down for par.

Lawrie parred his last and has a piece of the 36-hole lead for the seventh time on the European Tour.

"To get around in eight-under par, with no bogeys, I'm obviously playing good," said Lawrie. "I wasn't really in trouble. I played beautiful yesterday. I didn't quite play as good today, but almost the same."

Lawrie has five wins on the European Tour and three of those came with a piece of the second-round lead. His last 36-hole advantage led to his last win, which came at the 2002 Wales Open.

Phillip Archer (69), Jamie Donaldson (71), Peter Hedblom (68), Chinnarat Phadungsil (70) and Danny Willett (71) are knotted in 10th place at four-under 140.

The 36-hole cut fell at even-par 144 and defending champion Gregory Havret (76) and European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie (68) made it on the number.

Former U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell (145), David Howell (146), Paul McGinley (149) and Thomas Bjorn (158) all have the weekend off.