Toms facing uphill task

David Toms, never down by more than one hole all week in winning the Accenture World Match Play championship last year, faced that situation when Jose Maria Olazabal made a superb start to their second-round clash today.

Olazabal, who did not even qualify for the event 12 or 24 months ago, sank birdie putts of 10 and 15 feet on the second and third greens.

And Toms, who needed an extra hole to defeat Ian Poulter yesterday, was relieved not to be three down at that stage.

His opening drive had finished behind a tree and in the follow-through for his second shot, his club slammed into the trunk.

Toms studied it long and hard to see if it was out of shape before saving his par from a greenside bunker with a 14-foot putt.

The American star, who underwent heart surgery late last year, did halve his deficit by pitching to four feet on the fourth, but Olazabal returned to two-up at the 204-yard next, getting up and down from sand for the third time in the match while Toms took three from just off the back.

In the eagerly-awaited all-American clash between Phil Mickelson and John Daly it was Mickelson who drew first blood with a birdie at the long third, Daly hitting wildly right off the tee just as he had done on the first.

It was also a birdie that took Scott Verplank ahead against David Howell.

He was only four feet from the flag with his tee shot to the second as he looked to gain a second British scalp following his marathon, record-equalling 26-hole tussle with Lee Westwood.