With the field of 117 players moving to the Atkinson (N.H.) Country Club and Resort today for Round 2, familiar names stand out up and down the leaderboard.

Just look at the top 10, names like Billy Drohen, Tim Cote, Bobby Avellino and Walter Sharis - all former champions - are in the hunt, ready to pounce.

Perennial contenders like Tim Acquaviva and Colin Ahern, each with a couple of top fives in their pockets already, are right there, too.

Same old Rogers Golf excitement. Well, with a twist.

Topping the field yesterday, each carding fine three-under par round of 69, were Haverhill Country Club's Shawn Roderick and Indian Ridge Country Club's David Shaffer.

Anyone who's seen Roderick mount Rogers challenges in the past knows he has the swing and the game to dominate a leaderboard.

But the surprise has to be from Shaffer, the former Northwestern Wildcat.

Now 28, Shaffer hadn't played a competitive round of golf since 2001.

That was until he teed it up yesterday.

"Our company (Back 9 Golf Apparel and Headwear) is behind the Rogers now, and four of us from the company are playing," said Shaffer. "My career kind of fizzled out (in 2001). I was playing golf and going to grad school and wasn't really doing well with either.

"I was burnt out, resenting practice, it just wasn't fun," said Shaffer.

Since Shaffer had been a recreational golfer, playing when opportunities existed and learning to enjoy the game.

Yesterday's round was a reason to shout.

"I'm enjoying it more, just being around it," he said. "I'm playing better and liking it more and more."

Shaffer isn't quite sure what to expect the rest of the weekend.

"Indian Ridge is basically the only golf course I've (been on competitively) in 10 years," he joked. "I've never played Atkinson. And it's been a long time since I was out at Haverhill or Andover."

Ahern, out in the first group of the morning, set the number for the rest of the field to shoot at, carding a two-under-par round of 70 on his home course.

He stood alone in third, two shots ahead of Renaissance Golf Club's Tim Acquaviva. The Rollins College product and two-times Rogers runner-up was at even-par.

Bradford's Billy Drohen, the two-time defending champ and recent winner of the Mass. Amateur Public Links, headed up a group of seven at one-over-par 73, all of whom raced into today's round in a fifth-place tie.

Cote, Sharis and Avellino were all right there, along with junior standout Colin Brennan and Rich Campiola of Indian Ridge.

The field will be cut down to the top 40 after today's round at Atkinson.

Players who shot 78 or better in the opening round are in position after the first round, but a crowded pack of 26 players remain within a four-shot striking range of that number.

Tourney notes: One of the traditionally tougher tracks in the Rogers golf rotation, Indian Ridge played pretty fair with 50 out of 117 finishers breaking 80 in the opening round. With that number set, it might take a two-day total of 156 or 157, depending on conditions at Atkinson today, in order to make the cut. . .

Two players in the field had to feel especially happy at their rounds of 79.

After playing the front nine at seven-over par, Ken Oppenheim of Indian Ridge energized his round with an eagle two on the 10th hole, dropping in his wedge shot from 110 yards out.

Meanwhile, Keith Capeles found the range from 130 yards out on the 12th, nailing his deuce from the back door by spinning it in after landing about six feet behind the hole.