SUNRIVER — If Chip Sullivan keeps it up he may have to buy a second home here in Central Oregon.

Sullivan, a 48-year-old pro from Troutville, Va., climbed the leaderboard into a tie for second place Monday during the second round of the 2013 PGA Professional National Championship with a 4-under-par 67 at Sunriver Resort’s Meadows course.

At 7 under through 36 holes and tied with Pennsylvania pro Mark Sheftic, Sullivan finds himself in a familiar position — in contention at Sunriver.

Six years ago Sullivan dominated the field of the 2007 PNC, the last time Sunriver Resort hosted this tournament, earning a four-stroke win. And playing well again is no coincidence, he said.

“It is a good feeling to be back here,” Sullivan said Monday afternoon off Meadows’ ninth green, where he had just holed a 10-foot birdie putt to end his round. “I feel like I have never left. I feel like I have the wave going.”

The top 20 finishers at this week’s PNC secure a spot in the 2013 PGA Championship this August and the winner earns $75,000 and six exemptions over the next 12 months on the PGA Tour.

Sullivan needs to keep riding that wave if he is to overcome the group of 11 golfers he is among who rest within four shots of second-round leader Rod Perry, a Florida pro who shot an even-par 72 at Crosswater Club to take the 36-hole lead at 8 under.

Perry, a 39-year-old pro from Port Orange, Fla., and the 2012 PGA of America Player of the Year, traded a birdie with a bogey on both nines but largely played steady.

“Crosswater is playing pretty tough,” said Perry, who made the cut at the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational earlier this year. “It’s pretty tough to get it close to the hole.

“There are a lot of good players at the top. No lead is safe, that is for certain.”

Corey Prugh, a 32-year-old pro from Spokane, Wash., who shared the first-round lead with Perry, appeared to be destined for the 36-hole lead much of the second round.

But Prugh bogeyed Crosswater’s 17th hole and made double-bogey on 18 after hitting his tee shot into a water hazard to drop three shots and fall to 6 under.

“I just probably got a little ahead of myself,” said Prugh, who won the 2008 Oregon Open Invitational at Aspen Lakes Golf Course in Sisters. “That happens sometimes in golf.

“I’m happy about that (not falling from contention),” he added. “It’s easier coming from behind than it is as a frontrunner sometimes.”

Like Sunday’s first round, rain fell off and on all day, though it seemed to come down the hardest during a soggy morning.

Still, players raved about the course conditions.

“The course has held up awesome,” said Lake Oswego pro Scott Erdmann after carding a 3-under 68 on Monday to move to 3 under for the tournament and in a tie for 12th place. “There was a couple of spots where (water) might have pooled up in the fairway, but the ball was never plugging or anything like that. The greens were beautiful.”

Sullivan, for one, had little trouble negotiating the weather.

But the director of golf at Hanging Rock Golf Club in Salem, Va., has more than a golf course and its conditions to battle to be in contention at the PNC.

The former PGA Tour professional has hemochromatosis, a genetic disease that causes the body to absorb too much iron, and diabetes.

The diabetes is never far from his mind, he said. That holds true even on the course, where he wears an electronic device on his belt that monitors his blood sugar.

“I woke up in the middle of the night with my blood sugar too low and I had to go to the refrigerator and get some food to bring it back up,” said Sullivan of his Sunday night. “It’s a constant management of keeping your blood sugar intact. If you can do that, it’s a piece of cake.”

He certainly seemed in good shape Monday.

Sullivan — who tied with three others for the low round Sunday at Crosswater with a 3-under-par 69 — jumped up the leaderboard on his first hole of the second round.

Beginning his round with the par-5 10th hole, Sullivan drained his chip from behind the greenside bunker for eagle. He made two more birdies in his first seven holes to get to 7 under and played the rest of his round at even par.

Now he returns to Crosswater for the final two rounds in contention. And he goes to the course carrying a truckload of confidence playing at what is becoming his home away from home.

“I like Crosswater,” said Sullivan, who has finished in the top 10 three times in 16 PNC appearances. “Last year (at the 2012 PNC in Seaside, Calif.), I lost three balls in the trees and didn’t feel like I hit that bad of a tee shot. Here, it is a big course and I don’t have to worry about that.

“I like big courses like this where I feel like I can air it out and hit my targets. It’s a target course. It does present a nice look for my eye.”

PGA Professional National Championship

Who: 312 top club professionals from around the country who qualified through 2012 section championships or exemptions.

Where: Sunriver Resort’s Meadows and Crosswater courses.

When: Today and Wednesday, tee times are 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Crosswater.

Spectator information: Spectators are welcome free of charge. Free spectator shuttles will run all day between Crosswater and the La Pine Fire Station, south of Crosswater’s main gate on South Century Drive. Spectators wishing to watch action on the Meadows course should use parking at Sunriver’s Main Lodge. No cellphones or cameras permitted during competition days.

Golf Channel broadcasts: Today: 1-4 p.m.; Wednesday: 1-4 p.m.

On the web: For tee times, complete results and more information, visit www.pga.com/nationalchampionship

• See Scoreboard on C2 for scores from Monday’s second round.