Eagles have Parry flying high

Craig ‘Popeye’ Parry popped up with two more eagles today as he missed the Sawgrass course record by just one stroke in golf’s richest-ever event.

Having survived the halfway cut in the Players Championship in Florida with nothing to spare – he thought a closing bogey six had put him out of the £4.4million tournament – the little Australian charged from two over par to six under with a dazzling best-of-the-week 64.

The 38-year-old, who dramatically won the Ford Championship earlier this month by holing a six iron for an eagle two in a play-off against Scott Verplank, played the 535-yard 11th and 507-yard 16th in a combined six strokes.

First he struck a two iron to four feet, then it was that same six iron to 18 feet. “Two eagles in six holes – I normally have two in a year,” he joked.

Although he was up from 69th to joint fifth, that was long before the overnight leaders – Americans Kevin Sutherland and Jerry Kelly on nine under - had even teed off again.

“I would think 11 or 12 under will lead tonight,” added Parry. “It’s hard to do two low ones in a row, but I’ve given myself a chance. I didn’t think I’d even be playing the last two rounds.”

The course record of 63 is held by Fred Couples and Greg Norman, but the former European tour player insisted he did not even think of that and was happy to close with two pars.

“I was not paying attention to the round. I was just trying to play the course and not getting too far ahead of myself.”

Parry had a relatively small crowd with him all the way. Not so Tiger Woods when he resumed on level par – and the world number one rewarded the gallery with four birdies in his first seven holes to keep his hopes of an unbelievable win alive.

When Woods opened with a 75 all the talk was of whether a run of 119 tournaments without missing a cut would come to an end.

But he then produced a 69 to survive with two to spare and, having leapt from outside the top 100 to 44th at halfway he was up to joint 16th after making putts of 10 feet at the long second, seven feet at the fourth and after a bogey on the next eight and 12 feet on the next two.

Also going well was Darren Clarke, who turned in 33 to improve to two under, but the Ulsterman then started for home bogey-birdie-bogey to be one under and joint 27th.

Justin Rose was two under for the day and level par overall after 13 holes and Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie both stood one over late on. Faldo had almost made an albatross on the second, but went from the sublime to the ridiculous with a double-bogey seven at the ninth.

Montgomerie, another relieved to make it into the weekend on the limit of two over, double-bogeyed the relatively simple sixth.

Parry was alongside Padraig Harrington, who had yet to resume after starting the event he was second in last year with rounds of 68 and 70.