Mickelson leads, as Tiger makes cut

Phil Mickelson maintained his status as runaway leader at the USPGA Championship last night – as Tiger Woods staged another great escape to avoid his first missed cut in a major as a professional.

Paul McGinley is Ireland’s sole representative at Baltusrol, having shot an even par 70 to remain at +2.

Lee Westwood, currently the best hope of becoming the first European winner of a major for six years, had his second successive 68 in the final major of the season.

It moved him into a share of third place on four under par – only one behind Jerry Kelly, but four behind Mickelson, who had an eagle and seven birdies in an action-packed 65.

Out early, Mickelson posted a 132 halfway total - only one shot off the championship record. And that despite a double bogey and two bogeys on his card.

All Mickelson had had to say on Woods’ plight was: “If you are looking for me to shed a tear it’s not going to happen.”

He suspected that Woods might come up with something to stay alive in the event and he was proved right.

Woods, down in 113th place overnight after his 75, resumed at 1.30pm a massive 13 strokes adrift of his great rival. Survival was the name of the game, though, and he needed a score in the sixties.

He got it – just. After taking six down the 650-yard 17th in the unluckiest of fashions he knew he had to birdie the 554-yard last and, after taking six there in the first round, he made amends with a two-putt four.

There was all manner of drama in his 69. A large branch by the fourth green came down and hit three people below. One suffered a broken leg.

The world number one came to the 11th still requiring three birdies, got them and then, striving to get back into the hunt now, made an attempt to hit the green on the 17th in two.

Nobody has all week, but although he easily had the length he pulled the three-wood shot a fraction and it kicked off a bank against the back lip of the bunker.

There was no option but to play away from the hole. He got it into thick rough, chipped 12 feet past and the putt lipped out. It was pressure time again, but he responded like the Open and Masters champion he is.

“I got through somehow,” he said. “On the 18th I said ‘just trust your swing. Go up there and do it’. I have got to play two great rounds now, though, and the way Phil is playing it’s going to be awfully hard.”

Westwood’s day was made even better when told that Australia were in trouble in the Third Test.

“The hour I spend on the practice range will be painful for any Aussies around. It would be nice if they were all there,” said Westwood, who has rented a satellite dish at his New Jersey base to try to follow the Old Trafford action in between rounds.

For the first time in his career, he has been seeking help on the mental side.

“I just felt like I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I could do,” said the 32-year-old. “My last round scoring average has been very poor this year and I didn’t feel like I was playing any worse.

“I thought I would give it a try. It’s not really a golf psychologist, more a sort of lifestyle psychologist, I suppose.

“He’s made me think a little bit clearer. Just to be myself on the golf course more than anything, I think.”

Mickelson grabbed birdies at the 11th, 13th, 14th and then, after bogeying the short 16th by finding sand and missing from inside five feet, birdied the 17th and became another to eagle the 18th.

In his case it was courtesy of an 18-foot putt. He still had the more testing front nine to play, however, and the 478-yard first caught him out.

The left-hander found rough on the left and right there and his third shot over a bunker came up short of the green.

A 30-footer on the 503-yard third – a par four, incredibly – made quick amends, but after another birdie at the fifth he bogeyed the next.

His supply of birdies had not run out, however. There was another at the 380-yard eighth.

Kelly matched Mickelson’s 65 – and sank a bunker shot on his final hole (the short ninth) to do it – while among those to miss the cut were Open runner-up Colin Montgomerie, who despite a closing eagle could not recover from his initial 77, as well as the Irish contingent of Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke and Pádraig Harrington.

Bernhard Langer was three under with three to play, but bogeyed the seventh and double-bogeyed the 380-yard eighth, while Luke Donald and Ian Poulter, who had opened with 69s, managed only 73 and 74 respectively.