Harrington eyeballs Tiger

WHEN you’ve done it once,three times or even 14 times,you know you can do it again.

And that is certainly the case for some of the growing band of contenders for the 91st US PGA Championship at a wind-blown and steamy Hazeltine National.

As Tiger Woods and Pádraig Harrington, men with 17 majors between them, battled it out on a scorching afternoon, major winners like Vijay Singh, Lucas Glover and Ernie Els sat in the clubhouse believing they can taste grand slam glory again.

Singh declared that he can still win majors in his 50s after a second 72 gave him a share of the clubhouse lead with Australia’s Brendan Jones and US Open champion Glover. Els, meanwhile, was sitting comfortably on one under par after a sensational second round 68 erased the pain of an opening 75.

While he was disappointed not to take greater advantage of the best of the conditions, the 46-year old Fijian notched three birdies and three bogeys in winds gusting up to 25 mph to move into contention.

Victory for the former PGA and Masters champion would put him alongside Jack Nicklaus and Old Tom Morris as the second oldest major winner in history behind Julius Boros, who won this title in 1968 when he was 48. That he can win this week is a given for Singh, who has won 28 times since he turned 40. But given that 59-year old Tom Watson almost win the Open last month, Singh now believes he can keep on going for another decade at least.

“What Tom did gave a lot of guys on the Senior Tour a lot more boost than it did to me,” Singh said. “But it was incredible competing at 50, 55. If he can do it at 59, I think I’ll be able to do it in my 50s.”

Still, Singh was disappointed not to break par yesterday explaining: “I’m really disappointed with my round. Even par is a good round, but I had a lot of chances and two small missed putts here and there.

US Open winner Glover gave fair warning that his victory at Bethpage Black in June was no fluke when he added a two under par 70 to his opening 71 to join Singh on three under.

Like Singh, he can draw confidence from the knowledge that he has done it all before.

Els finished the day on one-under after his 68 but complained about his putting for the umpteenth time this year.

“My putting has gone cold again, unfortunately,” he said. “But the positive is I’m really swinging well, hitting the ball really well.”

Stiff winds and firming greens made conditions treacherous for the afternoon starters but that didn’t stop Harrington and his fellow Irishmen Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy from making their presence felt.

Three behind Woods starting the day on two under par, McDowell birdied his third and fifth holes (the 12th and 14th) to grab share of the lead on four under before handing those strokes straight back at the 16th, where he had to chip back into play following a pulled drive onto the bank of the creek, and the 18th, where he three-putted.

Back to two under par with nine to play, he was still very much in touch with the leaders, as was McIlroy, who looked to have damaged his chances by opening with a pair of birdies.

But the 20-year-old Holywood kid roared back into the mix when he rolled home a curling 40 footer at the eighth to complete a hat-trick of birdies and join McDowell, Ross Fisher and Robert Allenby on two under with eight to go.

All eyes were on the marquee showdown between Harrington and Woods and as they headed through the turn it was the American who had the upper hand as he followed an opening bogey with birdies at the sixth and seventh to open up a two-stroke lead over the field on six under.

Then came the ninth, where Woods hit his approach to six feet and Harrington followed him in to just four. Woods missed and Harrington holed, cutting the gap to one with a putt that curled almost 360 degrees around the cup and fell in the side door to get him to five under par.

The Stackstown man needed treatment overnight for back spasms and iced his ankle and elbow before going out but declared himself fit for battle, insisting: “It’s ongoing. I guess I’m paying a little bit for trying to get better. It’s what it takes to get ready. It’s just part of being a professional athlete.”

The Dubliner showed no ill effects as he started with a solid par, hitting the fairway with a driver and then chipping a putting for his four after coming up just short with his approach.

But Woods bogeyed, pulling his drive into the left rough and then bunkering his approach before failing with a nine-footer to slip back into a share of the lead with the Dubliner on four under par.

At the downwind second, Woods found the right rough 89 yards from green but Harrington hit a massive drive over the corner of the right to left dogleg and left himself 70 yards to the pin from the middle of the fairway, firing a lob wedge to around 18 feet.

The hole was “halved” in pars but at the third, Harrington drove into a fairway bunker, found rough with a fairway wood and still had a 189 yard third shot on the 633-yard par five.

His approach plunged into a greenside trap and while Harrington failed with a 10 footer and took six, Woods had to work hard for his par when he rammed his 30 foot birdie putt six feet past the hole.

Woods was soon back in front at the sixth, where he went to school on Harrington’s failed 30 foot birdie putt and rolled one home from around 25 feet to lead on his won at five under par.

At the par-five seventh, Woods moved two clear of the Dubliner when he made a birdie and Harrington did well to avoid a bogey six after three poor shots in a row left him facing a six footer for par he poured into the heart of the hole.

Nervous of the water left of the green, Harrington was buried in greenside rough on the right and almost chipped into the hazard on the far side of the green before getting up and down for his par after coming up short with his fourth.