Micheel holds two-shot lead
American Shaun Micheel claimed a shock halfway lead in the United States PGA championship at Oak Hill.
The 169th-ranked player in the world and appearing in the event for the first time, birdied four of his last five holes for a 68, a three-under-par total and a two-stroke lead.
Mike Weir and American Billy Andrade were set to share top spot until Micheel, playing only his third major, produced his brilliant finish.
Whoever wins is likely to do so with a record score. The championship switched from match play to stroke play in 1958 and since then the highest winning score was Larry Nelson's one under aggregate at PGA National in Florida in 1987.
Tiger Woods bogeyed two of his last three holes to be nine behind - he added a 72 to his opening 74 - while Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Greg Owen, Bradley Dredge, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood, Alastair Forsyth, Brian Davis, Justin Rose and Colin Montgomerie all missed the halfway cut, as did Open winner Ben Curtis and Thomas Bjorn.
Phil Mickelson led by three at five under when he birdied the long fourth, but he made two visits to the water in the next three holes and double-bogeyed them both. He finished with a 75 to be in the group on one over, while joint first-round leader Rod Pampling's 74 leaves him fourth.
Ernie Els looked set to be one under, but finished with a double bogey six at the 452-yard ninth.
Westwood and Forsyth could both do no better than 78 after the promise of opening 73s, while Montgomerie and Clarke improved their first day efforts - 82 and 79 respectively - by nine and eight, but still found it was not enough.
McGinley bogeyed the last to miss by one, but Paul Casey's 69, one of only a handful of sub-par rounds during the day, enabled him to make his first cut in a major at last. And former Walker Cup teammate Luke Donald stands five over.
Of the rest of the European contingent, German Alex Cejka was in on three over and that was starting to look better by the minute because of what was happening to many of those in front of him.
Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia, who led the European challenge after their opening rounds of 72, could do no better than 75, 76, and 77 respectively.
Meanwhile, young Australian Aaron Baddeley, joint sixth overnight, was penalised two strokes for missing his tee-off time.
Baddeley, three shots behind Mickelson and Pampling thanks to an opening 69, thought his start time was 7.35am when it was, in fact, five minutes earlier and he was late by 40 seconds. He went on to fire a 77.
David Duval was bothered by more back trouble and after starting with an 80 he managed only four more holes before retiring. The first was a double bogey six, the third a triple bogey six and the fourth a bogey six to leave the Ryder Cup star 16 over.
