Par five strategy reaps rich reward for Flesch

AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) - Back at the U.S. Masters for the first time in three years, American Steve Flesch took advantage of the par-five holes to charge up the leaderboard in Friday's second round.

The left-hander fired a flawless five-under-par 67 in relatively calm conditions at Augusta National, eagling the 13th on his way to the lowest score of the week.

"I played great," four-times PGA Tour winner Flesch told reporters after posting a five-under total of 139 to lie three strokes off the early pace. "The way I planned on playing this week was attack the par-fives when I could.

"Not necessarily go for them in two, because getting far enough out there now, as wet as it is, I'm not getting much roll on my driver.

"If I got a chance to go for one I would but otherwise just lay up and let my wedge kind of do the work there," added the American, a medium-length hitter off the tee. "And that's kind of how it's been working out."

The 40-year-old, who booked a return ticket to Augusta National by triumphing twice on the 2007 PGA Tour, covered the four par-fives in five under on Friday.

He birdied the second, the eighth and the 15th, and spectacularly eagled the 13th after hitting a three-iron from 234 yards to within two feet.

"I made a good swing, I hit it flush and I actually thought when it landed on the green it went over," Flesch said.

"I gave my club back to the caddie and then all of a sudden you could hear the crowd kind of groaning a little bit and I saw the ball roll down there a couple feet from the hole."

Flesch is delighted to be back at the opening major of the year, having not played at Augusta National since tying for 29th in 2005.

"It's one of my favorite events," he said. "I got here on Sunday, had three good days of practice and was looking forward to the week. I'm hitting the ball well and that hard work is paying off right now."

(Editing by Clare Lovell)