Harrington and McDowell join Woods to lead the field

Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell are tied with Tiger Woods at the top of the US PGA Championship leaderboard in Minnesota.

Harrington and playing partner Woods have led the field since yesterday, with McDowell inching up the leaderboard as play got underway today.

The three are now tied on four under, one shot ahead of the chasing foursome of Vijay Singh, `Brendan James, Lucas Glover and Alvaro Quiros.

Woods held a one-shot overnight lead over playing partner and defending champion Harrington as play got underway today, having shot a five-under-par 67 for his opening round at the 7,674-yard Minnesota course.

Two-time winner Vijay Singh was a further stroke behind at three under in a group tied for third, at the start of play.

With the players in front of him due out in the late wave of starters, when winds of 25 miles per hour and higher were forecast to hit the longest course in major championship history, the Fijian had a chance to at least close the gap with conditions favouring the early players.

The 1998 and 2004 champion had missed the last three US PGA cuts and he failed to take advantage at the other end of the field at Hazeltine with a level-par second round of 72 featuring three birdies and three bogeys to stay at three under.

“I’m really disappointed with my round,” Singh said. “Even par is a good round ... but I had a lot of chances and two small missed putts here and there.

“I could have scored one or two more better than I did and every time I made a birdie I followed up with a bogey or vice versa.”

Singh got a taste of the conditions facing the later starters as he bogeyed the last hole.

“I was up on top of the hill and then the wind blew. The ball almost went sideways,” he said. “But that’s the way, you have to take the good with the bad. That was a few of the bad ones.”

European 2010 Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie shot a 78 to finish at nine over for the tournament while Darren Clarke was also facing an early exit. The Northern Irishman was at 10 over following a 76.