Woods and Els continue their battle

The latest head-to-head clash between Tiger Woods and Ernie Els – golf’s two leading players in the world rankings – was like a version of the good, the bad and the ugly today.

Joint ninth at the halfway stage of the NEC world championship in Akron, it looked from the opening holes as though the pair would steal the show from those ahead of them.

And in terms of media attention also from Open champion Ben Curtis, who with his marriage set for 5pm a 30-minute drive away from the Firestone course could not help himself constantly looking at his watch after teeing off with Lee Westwood just before midday.

Els began birdie-eagle to go joint third, but then bogeyed the third, fifth and seventh to fall all the way back to 11th, alongside Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie amongst others.

Woods had birdies at the first, third and fifth, but he then dropped shots at the sixth and eighth and was joint eighth, in the group that also included England’s Paul Casey, who sank a 105-yard pitch to the first for an eagle two.

When Woods, winner on the course on his last three visits, had his third bogey in four holes on the ninth, finding the rough again, he and Els were both back to three under and out in “only” 35.

Meanwhile, overnight leaders David Toms and Chris Riley both had a taste of the outright lead as they set off again.

Riley made a 15-footer from the back fringe on the first, but then had his first bogey of the six-million-dollar tournament at the long second, hooking his drive into the trees and then going across the fairway into more woodland.

Toms, US PGA champion two years ago and runner-up to Woods in the Accentureworld match play in California in February, recovered from a terrible opening drive that nearly finished in a creek many of the players probably did not even know existed and two-putted the second for a birdie.

It took him top at eight under, one ahead of not only Riley, but also Fred Funk, Fiji’s Vijay Singh, South African Retief Goosen – and Ireland's Darren Clarke, whose birdies at the fifth and sixth kept him right in the thick of things in the race for a first prize of over a million dollars.

Paul McGinley’s 73 sent him sliding to four over, the same mark as Padraig Harrington (70) and Justin Rose (69), while Nick Faldo had a nightmare round.

Resuming on one over, he needed a par at the last to avoid an 80 after running up a triple bogey eight on the 16th and having eight bogeys.

Phillip Price and Phil Golding finished the day on eight over.