Ryder Cup trio in battle for Hong Kong title

Five weeks after Ian Poulter and Sergio Garcia were in a play-off for the Volvo Masters title, three more of Europe’s Ryder Cup heroes are battling for victory at the Omega Hong Kong Open.

While Poulter crashed out on five over par, Miguel Angel Jimenez moved to 11 under with a second round 64 and David Howell is two behind following a 66.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington, meanwhile, slipped to joint third by shooting 68 on a day when both he and Nick Faldo confronted trigger-happy photographers.

“Not you again,” shouted Faldo as he was put off once too often during a 67 that took him to four under and joint 15th spot. I know where you’re going next. The clubhouse, okay? I’ve had enough.”

Harrington had words on the 15th. Not because he was disturbed, but because Chinese playing partner Liang Wen-chong was the constant target.

“No expletives, though,” stated Dubliner Harrington. “I just told him not to take pictures during the swing. There were two of them and they had no interest in me.”

Harrington admits Jimenez is probably the last player he wanted to be trailing by four strokes. “He’s obviously the man in form,” he said of the Malaga golfer, who at the age of 40 is enjoying the best year of his career. A win on Sunday would be his fifth of 2004 – and his third in Asia.

Jimenez trailed with two holes of his second round to play, but while he birdied them both, Howell pulled his drive into the trees on the 410-yard last and had to get up and down from sand for a five.

It was his first bogey of the week and Howell said: “The longer you keep going without one the more exciting it gets. Not many people have gone through a tournament without dropping a shot (David J Russell was the last on the European tour in 1992), but it won’t be me this week now.

“It was coming really – I’m just not comfortable with my swing. Miguel is playing fantastic and is going to be hard to beat, but something might click for me.”

While Howell is seeking his first victory since the 1999 Dubai Desert Classic, Faldo has gone two years longer than that, but only on Wednesday he was saying he still believes he can win the British Open at St Andrews next July.

Jose Maria Olazabal, another former Masters champion who has been struggling lately, got his act together and was sharing the lead early on until he bogeyed two of the last four holes for a 68 and five under aggregate that eventually left him in a tie for 10th.

Overnight leader Adam Groom had even earlier gone three clear when he eagled the 12th, his third.

But the Australian then had five bogeys in the next seven holes before rallying to six under.

Poulter needed to par the 474-yard ninth to make it through to the weekend, but his second clipped tree branches, his third went across the fairway and his fourth had to be played left-handed.