Donald joins the leaders

For the first time in its 32-year history two Europeans shared the halfway lead in golf’s richest event – the £4.5m (€6.5m) Players Championship – at Sawgrass in Florida today.

Luke Donald added a 68 to his opening 66 when the rain-hit tournament finally managed to complete its second round this morning.

And that put him alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood and Americans Tim Herron and Joe Durant on the 10 under par mark of 134.

The third round was being played this afternoon, but more thunderstorms were expected and the final round had been re-scheduled for tomorrow.

The battle for the £800,000 (€1.1bn) first prize and the sport’s unofficial fifth major title was very nearly overshadowed by Tiger Woods’ battle to survive the cut, which he did in the end with nothing to spare.

Woods, struggling with his driver, had a double-bogey seven on the 535-yard 11th when play resumed and dropped back to one under.

That was the cut-off mark, but after a birdie on the next the world number two, whose last missed cut on the US Tour was 140 events ago in the 1997 Canadian Open, could afford a closing bogey and still squeezed through.

Nevertheless, he was down in joint 64th place nine adrift of Donald, Westwood and company.

Westwood, returning to an event he did not qualify for the last two years, posted his rounds of 65 and 69 yesterday, but Donald still had five to play after three hours were lost on top of Friday’s washout.

The former Walker Cup star, who had missed the cut on his two previous visits, played them in one under, grabbing a birdie at the long 16th despite hooking his drive into the trees.

“I’ve lost track of time,” joked the 27-year-old from High Wycombe. His second round had finished nearly 56 hours after his first round began.

“Delays are the same for everybody, but I’m glad to be done and in a good position,” he said.

After two lucky breaks in his first round – a narrow escape from the water on the 18th and a deflection of a tree to eight feet on the ninth, which he then birdied – he acknowledged more fortune at the 16th.

The ball was resting against pine cones, but instead of having to just chop out onto the fairway he had a gap in front of him and could advance the ball 150 yards.

It was still a good shot to do it, however. “You never know what the contact will be because of the cones.

“I had to draw it and if I didn’t it would have been in the water, but it worked out perfectly.”

He pitched to five feet for birdie and then parred the last two, although at the last it needed a nine-foot putt after he drove into the rough.

Padraig Harrington, runner-up the last two years, resumed on seven under par alongside Ulsterman Graeme McDowell (round in 66 on yesterday) with the entire back nine to come and a chance to get right in the thick of things.

Instead the Dubliner, who did not want to come to the event this year with his 72-year-old father suffering from cancer, was in the water on the long 11th and the island green 17th and also had bogeys on the 13th and 14th.

He dropped back to four under and joint 27th with a 73 and said: “It was not that difficult, but it felt difficult playing in a gusting wind.

“Another day you would not think there was much of a breeze, but it felt awkward.”

Harrington, winner of his first US Tour title two weeks ago, had never previously gone into the water at the famous 17th.

Herron took over top spot with six successive birdies around the turn, but double-bogeyed the difficult 14th.

That was not the highest score there, though. England’s Ian Poulter had a quintuple bogey nine when one over par.

“I pulled my drive in the bunker, then lost a ball,” he stated after missing the cut. “That meant dropping another in the sand and that was game, set and match.”

His fourth shot flew right and it took him three more just to make the green.

Also out went Justin Rose by one – an end to his hopes of a place in the Masters in two weeks – Paul Casey by two and David Howell by four.

Before the third round Donald argued a case for Colin Montgomerie to be given a spot at Augusta.

Montgomerie had finished fourth in Indonesia today after a closing round of 60, but needed second place to have a chance of climbing into the world’s top 50.

“It’s a shame the Ryder Cup and President’s Cup teams don’t get in,” commented Donald. “But I guess it makes it more of an elite event.”

Westwood turned his thoughts to golf again after listening to his horse Right Approach finish third in Dubai yesterday.

The Worksop player owns a 15% share in a horse that cost him £10,000 (€14,000). He and manager Chubby Chandler have already turned down a million-dollar offer for it.

Of its third place he said: “We were hoping it was going to win, but horses are like golfers – you never know how they are going to come out of the stalls. “It’s paid for his hay!”

Phil Mickelson moved to six under with a 68, while Nick Faldo was three under and Darren Clarke one under.