Owen shows his grit and quality

GREG OWEN came off Sawgrass proud of himself yesterday after showing the golfing world he is a real fighter as well as a quality player.

Five days on from throwing away the Bay Hill Invitational, the 34-year-old was in danger of crashing out of the £5 million (€7.2m) Players Championship when he began his second round with a double-bogey six.

But in a tricky wind he covered the remaining 17 holes in a brilliant six under par and was suddenly in contention for the sport's richest event.

"I don't think you can report what I said to myself coming off the first green," said Owen after a 68 enabled him to reach halfway on the five under mark of 139, two behind early clubhouse leaders Stephen Ames and Adam Scott.

He had driven into the rough, come up short of the green and then three-putted by missing from three feet, bringing back the awful memories of his double bogey, bogey finish to lose by one at Bay Hill.

"It was definitely not an ideal start, but maybe I needed that just to get going," he said.

Owen, for whom a top-20 finish could earn him a Masters debut, waited to see what his position would be going into the weekend as first round leaders Jim Furyk and Davis Love were resuming as he finished.

But while Furyk moved to eight under with seven to play and one ahead, Love fell all the way back to three under alongside Tiger Woods.

The world number one had an adventurous finish to his 69, driving into water and then chipping in for a par five, as he battled to stay in touch.

Woods, not certain yet to defend the Masters in a fortnight's time, was in a tie for 20th place.

Ames and Scott were joined in second place by Jose Maria Olazabal while Sergio Garcia and Vijay Singh were one behind with KJ Choi.

Ian Poulter's Masters hopes were re-ignited when he covered the first 10 holes in four under after resuming on level par, but he then bogeyed the 15th.

Earlier, 48-year-old Bernhard Langer briefly held the lead at eight under but crashed spectacularly with seven bogeys in 10 holes. He finished with a 75 for two under.

Darren Clarke, playing with Woods, had a 70 for one under, but fellow Irishmen Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley headed out at two over and six over along with Luke Donald and Justin Rose.

Donald slumped to a 74 for four over, while Rose, who had required top two for the Masters, improved six shots on his opening 78, but knew it was nowhere near enough to survive.

Colin Montgomerie was in danger of missing a fourth successive cut when he could do no better than 38 for the front nine and was two over.

There were holes-in-one at the 13th, meanwhile, from both Justin Leonard and Jesper Parnevik.

Leonard still looked like missing the cut at one over, but it might have saved the Swede as he was level par with four holes remaining.