Clarke tames Tiger then lets lead slip in mixed round

DARREN CLARKE got the better of Tiger Woods over the first nine holes of their NEC World Championship second round clash in Akron yesterday — but not by the amount he had hoped.

When he sank a 15-foot eagle putt on the 497-yard second and made a nine-footer for birdie at the next he led the $6million event by two strokes.

But then came bogeys on the seventh and eighth holes and as he began the back nine of Firestone’s South Course he trailed 2001 US PGA champion David Toms by two and shared second place with Vijay Singh, Brad Faxon, Chris Riley and 47-year-old Fred Funk, who earlier in the day had missed equalling the course record by just one shot with a dazzling 62.

Woods, joint third overnight, resumed with a bogey after putting an iron off the tee into sand.

He birdied the second and then parred the next seven to remain five under, tied for seventh and now three strokes behind.

Toms sank a 128-yard approach to the 469-yard sixth as he reached the turn in 32 and then birdied the 10th to stretch his lead to two.

Padraig Harrington’s 71 left him four over while overnight leaders Ben Curtis and Sergio Garcia showed what a difference a day can make by tumbling off the leaderboard altogether.

Curtis, his mind maybe more on his wedding at the end of his third round tomorrow, double-bogeyed the first and bogeyed the third and sixth to go all the way back from six under to two under.

Garcia followed him into the water in front of the third green, had a double bogey of his own there and after grabbing a birdie on the sixth gave it back immediately by failing to get up and down from sand at the 219-yard seventh. He stood four under.

Following his round, Funk let everybody know what he thought of the Open last month.

The 47-year-old, who in an inspired display today sank a 120-yard pitch shot on the first and then holed a bunker shot at the short 15th, said: “I shouldn’t say I hated the golf course, but I hated the golf course.

“When I played six holes in Sunday’s practice round I wanted to get back on the plane again.

“I was standing on the tee and didn’t know where to aim it. It didn’t reward good golf shots, I thought.

“When you had fairways like one, nine, 17 and 18 it really was nearly impossible to keep a ball in the fairway.

“I just don’t understand that concept of design.

“I don’t understand how they could think that’s golf to me.”

Funk shot rounds of 75 and 80 and missed the halfway cut.

However, such has been his form since that on Sunday night Jack Nicklaus gave him one of his two wild cards for the United States team at the Presidents Cup in South Africa in November.

He was paired with England’s Paul Casey, another highly critical of the Sandwich lay-out after scoring a first round 85, and Casey also looked a much happier man in Ohio after coming in with a 66.

Four over par after 16 holes of his first round, Casey birdied the last two holes and then resumed today with two more.

After reaching halfway on the two-under-par mark he thanked New Zealander Michael Campbell for a putting tip.

“Cambo is the new putting guru,” he commented. “I didn’t hit it that great, but the work I did with Michael paid off.”

Colin Montgomerie and Phillip Price, both two under overnight, were unable to make a move.

Montgomerie covered the first 15 holes in level par, while Price had three successive bogeys from the 14th and dropped to one over.

Lee Westwood’s second successive 70 left him on even par, while one further back were Ian Poulter (68), Nick Faldo (67) and Paul McGinley (71).

Phil Golding’s 69 put him on five over along with Justin Rose, who could do no better than a 73.

With a restricted field of only 85 players there was no halfway cut for any of the tail-enders to worry about.