Play under way in Match Play championship

Europe’s challenge for the Accenture Match Play Championship began brightly when the delayed second round finally got underway today.

Thursday’s play was completely washed out after torrential rain left large parts of the course under water, and some places only accessible by boat.

That meant an early start this morning with play beginning at 7.10am local time, after a 10-minute delay after more rain, with both the second and third round scheduled to be completed.

Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter and Darren Clarke followed each other off the 10th tee, and all three were soon ahead in their respective matches.

Harrington halved the opening two holes with Bob Estes after the American escaped with a wild drive on the 10th, before a birdie two on the 12th took the Irishman one up.

Poulter’s opponent, Duffy Waldorf, was not so lucky with his opening tee shot and was only able to hack it some 40 yards onto the fairway, and Poulter’s solid par four was good enough to edge ahead.

Clarke was the one to escape with a poor tee shot against Germany’s Alex Cejka, the Ulsterman able to make his par four and then take the lead on the next with a birdie four.

That match guaranteed Europe a player in the third round, as did the contest between Sweden’s Fredrik Jacobson and Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn.

Europe’s remanining contender, Scot Colin Montgomerie, was up against American Stewart Cink following his dramatic 20th hole victory over Nick Price on Wednesday.