GOLF WGC-CA CHAMPIONSHIP:PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON made the most of his early start in the second round of the WGC-CA Championship at Doral's Blue Monster yesterday by carding a 68 to move to within four of leader Ernie Els.
The thunderstorms returned to Miami, however, to prevent Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy finishing their rounds, though the latter, in particular, looks to have little to play for having dropped back to five over with 35 holes played.
The world number nine wasted a great start by bogeying three-in-a-row from the fourth after picking up shots at the first and third. He parred everything from there to 17.
McDowell moved to level par after playing 16 holes in two under and will harbour ambitions of improving over the weekend.
But the Irish challenge lies with Harrington, even if he is not so convinced. “I have a tradition, unfortunately for me, that I don’t normally win out of the blue,” said Harrington after he moved up six places to a share of fifth alongside Denmark’s Soren Hansen.
“It’s very rare. I normally warm up by getting into contention a few times.
“I’m happy with my scoring but I made a few mental errors out there and missed a few putts.
“Obviously, though, I hit enough good shots and I seemed to have a lot of reasonable chances for birdies.”
He’s never been one to get ahead of himself, but his ambition in this instance has perhaps been stunted by his drop to 13th in the world and a season’s best of 16th from four starts this year.
The Dubliner opened with a birdie at the 10th and improved to two under for the round at the par-four 16th.
Having finished his first round with a superb birdie at the last, he failed to repeat the trick when he hooked his drive into the lake, but recovered to minimise the damage and take a bogey.
Three birdies followed on the way in at the second, third and eighth, shortly before play was held up because of an approaching thunderstorm.
SECOND ROUND SCORES
Completed scores: play suspended by rain
US unless stated
134 (10 under) – Ernie Els (Rsa) 68 66.
135 – Robert Allenby (Aus) 68 67.
137 – Bill Haas 71 66.
138 – Soren Hansen (Den) 69 69, Padraig Harrington 70 68.
139 – Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 71, JB Holmes 69 70, John Senden (Aus) 69 70, Mike Weir (Can) 73 66, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 71 68, Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 69.
140 – Peter Hanson (Swe) 74 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 68.
141 – Dustin Johnson 69 72, Paul Casey 69 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 69, Liang Wen Chong (Chn) 72 69.
142 – Steve Stricker 73 69, Hunter Mahan 72 70, Jason Dufner 73 69, Alistair Presnell (Aus) 72 70, Matt Kuchar 71 71.
143 – Adam Scott (Aus) 74 69, Brian Gay 74 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 71.
144 – Lucas Glover 72 72.
145 – Luke Donald 70 75, Simon Dyson 72 73, Heath Slocum 74 71, YE Yang (Kor) 73 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73 72.
146 – Steve Marino 75 71, Jim Furyk 70 76, Anders Hansen (Den) 76 70, Zach Johnson 76 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 74 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 72 74.
147 – Kenny Perry 73 74, Ben Crane 74 73, Ryan Palmer 79 68, Ross McGowan 76 71.
148 – Kevin Na 78 70, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 78 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 73 75, Scott Verplank 76 72.
149 – Michael Sim (Aus) 75 74, Stewart Cink 75 74.
150 – Ian Poulter 72 78.
151 – Marc Leishman (Aus) 78 73.
152 – Oliver Wilson 78 74.
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