Ryo Ishikawa carded a 1-over-par 71 in the second round of the Wyndham Championship on Friday, sitting 10 shots behind two co-leaders and making the cut for the first time in four months.
Ishikawa, who started the day five strokes off the pace, had one bogey and no birdies for a two-day total of 3-under 137 at Sedgefield Country Club, dropping from a tie for 18th overnight to 66th in the last regular-season men's golf event on the PGA Tour.
"I feel nothing but frustration," said the 25-year-old who advanced to the final rounds for the first time in seven attempts since going through at the Valero Texas Open in April.
"I wasn't swinging my drivers as well as I did yesterday, and that made it difficult to adjust the distance of my iron shots. I could have putted better, too. I want to work on improving everything."
Ishikawa needs to place second or higher at the ongoing tournament to receive an automatic PGA Tour card for next season.
Ryan Armour had the day's best score, a 61, to sit in the lead along with fellow American Webb Simpson with midway totals of 13-under 127, followed a stroke back by Henrik Stenson of Sweden. Vaughn Taylor and Ollie Schniederjans of the United States are a further shot behind.
Hiroshi Iwata was eliminated with a two-round total of 4-over 144.