Weir stretches lead in Deutsche Bank Championship

Canadian Mike Weir stretched his lead to three strokes while Englishman Brian Davis stormed home with four successive birdies on his back nine to ensure he would make the halfway cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship today.

Making the cut is not normally at the forefront of a player’s mind, but the way the PGA Tour’s play-off system has been structured is such that surviving for the 72 holes has suddenly taken on paramount importance.

Davis, 55th on the points standings after last week’s first of four events in the play-off series, needed to make the cut here to stay in the top 70 and advance to next week’s BMW Championship.

He was looking down the barrel halfway through his second round at the Boston TPC, but the putter suddenly got hot as he finished strongly to card a five-under-par 66.

“I was one over after five holes and thinking about making the cut, so it was a good performance on the back nine,” said the Londoner, who trails Weir by seven strokes with half the field back in the clubhouse.

“I hit some good shots but suddenly I started making the putts, versus missing them, and got the job done.

“Now, if I play well over the weekend, and again next week, I can still make the Tour Championship (restricted to the top 30 players), which would be great.”

While Davis is focused on the FedEx Cup play-offs, compatriots Paul Casey (three under) and Ian Poulter (one under) teed off this evening in search of one last good round before European Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo makes his two wild card picks.

Davis is not in the running for selection, but he is keenly interested in what Faldo will do, and thinks the captain needs to pick players with plenty of experience competing in the United States.

Weir, who matched the course record with a 10-under 61 in the first round, made a tardy start to the second round, but recovered from two early bogeys to roar back with five birdies in a three-under 68.

“It wasn’t a great start but there’s lots of golf to be played and I just kept telling myself that,” he said.

“I hit one bad tee shot on 12 (his third hole) and made bogey there, then I three-putted 13, and then once I hit a nice shot into 15, hit it to probably four inches, that got my momentum started.

“The course was a little tough for me today, no question. I had lots of seven, eight and nine irons and wedges yesterday, whereas today I had a lot of (long) irons with soft conditions and the ball not running out.”

Weir posted a 13-under 129 halfway total, two strokes clear of American Jim Furyk (65), with three more Americans – Anthony Kim, Heath Slocum and John Merrick – three strokes off the pace.