American duo aim to go one better

But for Phil Mickelson, last week’s WGC-CA Championship would have been won by Nick Watney and last month’s Northern Trust Open by Steve Stricker.

The world number two is on a two-week break now and, in his absence, his two fellow Americans shared the lead going into today’s third round at the Transitions Championship in Florida.

Watney and Stricker moved to six-under-par with 67s yesterday and are one in front of no fewer than eight players – Jonathan Byrd, 50-year-old Tom Lehman, Charles Howell, Troy Matteson, JJ Henry, Joe Ogilvie, Australian Stuart Appleby and South African Retief Goosen.

First-day leader Jim Furyk is seven behind and not even in the top 50, however, after a 78 that represented his worst round on the PGA Tour for nearly two years.

Watney, up already this year from 203rd in the world to 40th, commented: “I guess I’m playing very well but it really seems like this is just what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m keeping the game pretty simple and putting well.

“I think I’m still learning. Like last weekend was a new experience for me just to play in the last group with Phil in that kind of atmosphere.

“But I enjoy trying to get better and learning from different situations.”

Stricker stated: “I made some dumb mistakes yesterday and I tried to clean that up today and I did.”

Seventeen-year-old Ryo Ishikawa, the new star of Japanese golf, made the cut on level-par on only his second PGA Tour start.

The only two Europeans to survive the halfway cut were Swede Richard Johnson on one-under and Spaniard Alvaro Quiros on level-par.