Halfway to Masters paradise

CHAD CAMPBELL emerged as the new leader at Augusta yesterday but this looks like being one of the most exciting Masters weekends for a long time.

Nobody is going to run away with it and once again the course has proved a really severe test, even if the par three 3rd was reduced in length by some 40 yards for yesterday's second round and was nowhere as difficult as on day one. Even so, first round leader Vijay Singh ran up a double bogey, his second in two holes, and had yet another at the 13th, to prove even the game's greats can be trapped by the innate difficulty of this remarkable golf course.

Ireland's Darren Clarke and Pádraig Harrington both shot rounds of 70 to move to two and one under respectively and lead the European challenge, along with ever consistent Englishman David Howell. But the Americans have also made a bit of a move, with Campbell showing the way, supported by Rocco Mediate, Phil Mickelson and Freddie Couples. There is an 80% likelihood of rain today which may make things easier for the players because the course was beginning to run fast and bouncy in yesterday's increasingly strong wind.