PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) – Carl Pettersson might not be a “mystery Swede” much longer.

Unknown even by the Swedish Golf Federation until a few years ago, Pettersson continued to make it look easy at Mirasol on Friday with a 4-under 68 that gave him a three-shot lead, the largest 36-hole margin on tour this year.

“I’ve never had a 36-hole lead,” Pettersson said. “We’ll see what happens.”

He was at 13-under 131, three shots ahead of Brad Faxon and Todd Hamilton, who each shot 66. Fredrik Jacobson of Sweden had a 69 and was at 8-under 136, while the large contingent at 138 included Davis Love III, Fred Couples and Jesper Parnevik, the PGA Tour’s most famous Swedish player.

“He’s one of those mystery Swedes,” Parnevik said. “Even the Swedish golfers didn’t have a clue he was from Sweden for a while.”

Pettersson moved to England when he was 10, then to North Carolina five years ago when his father was transferred to the United States while working for Volvo.

The head of the Swedish Golf Federation noticed his name among the college rankings in 2000. He called Pettersson with two important questions: Was he really from Sweden? And would he represent the homeland as an amateur?

Pettersson won the European Amateur in Austria, and he played on the Swedish team that finished fourth in the World Team Amateur.

Since leaving North Carolina State, he hasn’t made any headlines except for sharing the first-round lead at Muirfield in the 2002 British Open, and finishing second by four shots at Torrey Pines last year.

.

Now he has a chance to make a name for himself.

“It all depends on the weekend,” Pettersson said.

He will play the Sunrise course Saturday with Faxon, who was exceptional as ever with his putter. Faxon had five birdies in a seven-hole stretch – one of them after a fortunate bounce off a trash can – and saved par on four of his final five holes in making a 36-hole cut for the first time this year.

Faxon tore ligaments in his right knee over Thanksgiving, decided not to have surgery and is slowly putting his game together.

“The last two weeks there’s been some good progress in my knee,” Faxon said.

Hamilton was an All-American on Oklahoma’s golf team, but that was back when Barry Switzer was the football coach. He has spent most of his 17-year career in Asia and finally got through Q-school last year. That makes him a 38-year-old rookie on the PGA Tour, and another guy who would love to make a name for himself at Mirasol.

The only difficulty Pettersson has faced this week is how to pronounce his name.

He was called “PET-er-son” when he was in contention at Muirfield two years ago. But having spent the last 11 years in the United States, and married a girl from North Carolina, he decided to go with “Peterson.”

Parnevik takes it one step farther, referring to him as “the only redneck Swede on the planet.”

For two days on the Sunrise course at Mirasol, he’s simply been the best golfer.

Pettersson opened with a 63, although Faxon and Hamilton each surpassed him on the leaderboard by the time the Swede teed off in the afternoon.

He hit a 6-iron into 12 feet for birdie on the par-3 11th (his second hole), and got away with a slight miss on the difficult 14th. Pettersson was trying to land his 7-iron from 181 yards some 15 feet right of the hole, pulled it slightly and came within inches of holing out for eagle.

His lone bogey came from a fairway bunker on No. 2, but he atoned for that by smashing a 3-wood from the left rough to the front of the green on the par-5 fifth, two-putting from nearly 100 feet for birdie.

Pettersson still has his work cut out for him.

While Mirasol has been kind and gentle, all it takes is a little wind to make the elevated, heavily contoured greens to turn even the good shots into a potential disaster.

The cut, which was a record 6 under last year at the Sunset course, was even par.

Greg Norman, making his 2004 debut, looked like he might make the cut until he hit a provisional ball on the 13th hole fearing his tee shot was in the hazard. Players are not allowed to hit provisional shots unless the ball is believed to be lost or out of bounds, and Norman wound up disqualifying himself.

Divots: Only three players who had a share of the lead going into the weekend have gone on to win this year – Phil Mickelson at the Bob Hope Classic, Mike Weir at the Nissan Open and Heath Slocum in Tucson. … Ryder Cup captain Hal Sutton opened with a 69, but shot 77 on Friday and was among those who missed the cut. … Curtis Strange, who opened with an 82, withdrew during the second round with a back injury.

AP-ES-03-12-04 1922EST