Harrington still in the running
Ireland’s Pádraig Harrington was still in touch at eight under on the second day of the Ford Championship at Doral in Florida.
He needed a closing par for a second-successive 68 for a tied eighth place berth however, after he fluffed a chip and then three-putted for a double-bogey six.
Irish colleague Graeme McDowell did not enjoy the best of days – he missed the cut despite shooting a respectable 69.
Joint leader Phil Mickelson refused to be overshadowed by the man he most wants to beat - Tiger Woods.
Defending champion Woods, leader by one after the first round, added a 67 to his opening 64, but Mickelson, runner-up last year, birdied two of the last three holes for a 66 to sit alongside the world number one in the clubhouse lead on 13 under par.
“This guy Tiger seems to play well every day, every week,” said Mickelson before the round. “I’m just trying to keep pace so I can maybe have another shot at duelling out with him on Sunday.”
“I’m glad that he’s playing well – I’ve got to do my part and stay with him.”
They were later joined by their former Ryder Cup team-mate Scott Verplank, who outscored both of them on the day with a 65 and Columbian Camilo Villegas who continued his good form with a 66.
On six under Verplank was alongside Greg Owen, Sergio Garcia and Jesper Parnevik, who had no fewer than nine birdies in his 66.
Nobody has made a successful defence of this title since Ray Floyd in 1981, but Woods had stated: “Hopefully I can go out and post another good number because you have to. If you shoot even par you’re going to get run over here.”
Returning to the event where Woods won by one last year with closing rounds of 63 and 66 the pair kicked off the second round with birdies to throw down the gauntlet to each other again.
Mickelson sank a nine-foot eagle putt on the long eighth to turn in 33, but Woods, resuming on the back nine this time, matched that by picking up further shots on the 16th and 18th.
The similarity remained remarkable when both chipped to three feet for birdies at the start of their second nine, but Woods went two clear with a superb pitch to two feet on the second.
His first bogey of the week came when he failed to get up and down from sand on the fourth and he soon lost the outright lead – not to Mickelson, but to former USPGA champion Rich Beem.
However, Beem finished with a three-putt bogey and Woods came straight back with a birdie on the fifth before Mickelson got on level terms after pitching to 10 and five feet at the 16th and 17th.
Verplank’s 65 was matched by Ernie Els, but the South African had started the day down on level par and so was still six adrift.
The leading European remained Orlando-based Swede Daniel Chopra, who added a 67 to his opening 66 for 11 under.
:
131 Camilo Villegas (Col) 65 66, Scott Verplank 66 65, Phil Mickelson 65 66, Tiger Woods 64 67
132 David Toms 66 66, Rich Beem 65 67, Mark Wilson 65 67
133 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 66 67
134 Troy Matteson 70 64, Dean Wilson 66 68, Chad Campbell 68 66, Lucas Glover 67 67, Zach Johnson 69 65
135 Tim Clark (Rsa) 68 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 69 66, Briny Baird 68 67, Ryan Palmer 65 70, Charles Warren 69 66, Shane Bertsch 68 67
136 Shaun Micheel 69 67, Woody Austin 69 67, Carlos Franco (Par) 69 67, Kevin Na (Kor) 69 67, Harrison Frazar 69 67
137 Justin Leonard 68 69, Jason Bohn 67 70, Bo Van Pelt 69 68, Davis Love III 68 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 65, Jeff Sluman 69 68, Joey Snyder III 67 70, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 67, Tag Ridings 68 69, Tom Pernice Jnr. 69 68, Jeff Brehaut 70 67, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 68 69, Lee Janzen 72 65
138 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 68, Ken Duke 69 69, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 72 66, Duffy Waldorf 68 70, Rocco Mediate 68 70, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 68 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 69 69, Kent Jones 71 67, Craig Barlow 68 70, Greg Owen (Eng) 70 68, John Senden (Aus) 70 68
139 Sean O’Hair 70 69, Chris DiMarco 71 68, Jerry Kelly 69 70, Paul Stankowski 70 69, David Howell (Eng) 69 70, James Driscoll 72 67, Kenny Perry 69 70, Billy Mayfair 68 71, Bubba Watson 69 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 68 71, Fred Funk 69 70, Robert Damron 69 70, Todd Hamilton 69 70, Jimmy Walker 69 70
140 Joey Sindelar 72 68, Heath Slocum 71 69, Wes Short jr. 73 67, Brian Gay 69 71, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 72 68, Joe Ogilvie 68 72, Vijay Singh (Fij) 67 73, Brett Quigley 70 70, Todd Fischer 70 70
:
141 Jay Williamson 70 71, Tim Herron 73 68, Brent Geiberger 70 71, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 71, Bart Bryant 72 69, Pat Perez 70 71, Charley Hoffman 67 74, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 72 69, Bob Tway 72 69, Mark Brooks 71 70, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 70 71, Hank Kuehne 68 73, Ian Leggatt (Can) 72 69, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 74 67, Joe Durant 75 66, Steve Elkington (Aus) 67 74
142 Patrick Sheehan 70 72, Tim Petrovic 71 71, Paul Goydos 70 72, Steve Stricker 72 70, Graeme McDowell (Irl) 73 69, Bob Estes 73 69, Chris Riley 67 75, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 70 72, Paul Azinger 70 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 71 71, John Riegger 67 75, Michael Bradley 66 76, Doug Barron 71 71, Mark O’Meara 69 73
143 Billy Andrade 74 69, David Branshaw 72 71, Brad Faxon 72 71, Tommy Armour III 75 68, Chris Smith 72 71, John Huston 75 68, Jonathan Byrd 73 70, Nick Watney 71 72, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 72 71
144 Justin Rose (Eng) 73 71, Jim Furyk 73 71, Steve Lowery 69 75, Brian Davis (Eng) 72 72, Jeff Maggert 70 74, Dudley Hart 71 73
145 J.B. Holmes 71 74, Nicholas Thompson 71 74, Nathan Green (Aus) 71 74, Steve Flesch 71 74
146 Robert Gamez 69 77, Thomas Levet (Fra) 71 75, Craig Perks (Nzl) 74 72, J J Henry 71 75
147 Gabriel Hjertstedt (Swe) 74 73, Craig Parry (Aus) 72 75, Chris Perry 72 75
148 John Cook 77 71, Nick Price (Zim) 75 73, Cameron Beckman 75 73
149 Dave Kelly 73 76, Ben Curtis 74 75
150 Nick Faldo (Eng) 72 78
151 J.L. Lewis 74 77, Adam Adams 79 72, Lee Rinker 74 77, Chris Toulson 76 75
152 D.J. Trahan 75 77
153 Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 76 77
158 Keith Burt 78 80
: 143 Mark Calcavecchia 71 72.
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