Donald puts himself in frame

Luke Donald outshone playing partners Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco and moved into contention for the Barclays Classic in New York today.

Only 68th after a one-over-par opening 72, the 28-year-old from High Wycombe added a sparkling bogey-free 65 to be just three shots behind Vijay Singh, whose 64 was his lowest round of the year.

Donald, bumped out of the world’s top 10 and an automatic Ryder Cup spot by fellow Englishman David Howell’s victory in the BMW Championship two weeks ago, turned in a three-under 32 even with three-putting the long 18th for par.

That looked only a minor setback as he promptly birdied the 190-yard first and followed another birdie at the long fifth with a 10-footer on the next.

With overnight leader Adam Scott managing only a 72, Singh moved to the top of the leaderboard by grabbing an eagle and five birdies.

At eight under, Singh was one in front of Swede Fredrik Jacobson, while Donald was tied for fourth and in a group that also included Howell, who still had six holes to play.

Lee Westwood, meanwhile, missed the halfway cut for the sixth successive tournament after he had a second successive 74 for a six-over aggregate.

Westwood’s Ryder Cup prospects have taken a real nosedive as a result and will get no better next week – he has failed to make it into the US Open.

Defending champion Padraig Harrington had been heading out too at six over with 12 to play, but the Dubliner then birdied six of the next eight holes to be inside the expected cut-off mark.

Ian Poulter’s closing birdie put him one under and he had to wait to learn his fate, but last week’s winner Carl Pettersson was out on three over.

Masters champion Mickelson and likely Ryder Cup partner DiMarco had resumed on one under and both added 70s to be two under as Donald came flying past them. Graeme McDowell and Jose Maria Olazabal also stood two under.