Golf:Sweden's Robert Karlsson shot a five-under-par 65 to open up a three-stroke lead at the halfway stage of the St Jude Classic in Memphis where Pádraig Harrington only just survived the cut.
Karlsson, defeated by England's Lee Westwood in a three-way playoff at the same tournament last year, went one better than his opening round 66 to reach the halfway stage at nine-under.
That left him with a three-shot advantage over his nearest rivals, the American pair of Colt Knost and Keegan Bradley.
"I like this golf course and I played quite well over two days," said Karlsson. "I hit a lot of good iron shots today, gave myself quite a few easy birdies. Yesterday I played the par-fives a bit better, but it's okay."
Knost, who had missed the cut in his past four events, followed up his opening 66 with a 68 while Bradley, who won his first PGA Tour title at the Byron Nelson two weeks ago, continued his great run with a bogey-free 67.
"I played a great round of golf today. I did hit a few funky shots, but when I did, I got it up and down," Bradley said. "It was just a good solid round. When I got in trouble, I hit great shots."
John Merrick ended the second day in outright fourth at five-under while Sweden's Fredrik Jacobson and American Harrison Frazar were tied for fifth one further adrift after matching Karlsson's 65 as the best round on another hot and humid day at the TPC Southwind.
David Mathis, who led Karlsson by a shot overnight, slipped back in the field after a 72 while world number two Westwood was eight shots off the pace after a 70.
Harrington had an anxious wait to see if he would be around for the weekend after a second round 72 left the Dubliner on the cut mark of two-over. On his competitive return after injury, the extra couple of rounds should come in useful for the triple major winner ahead of next week’s US Open at the Congressional.
Among the players who missed the cut at two-over were Spain's Sergio Garcia and South Korea's Y.E. Yang.
Collated second round scores and totals in the USPGA Tour FedEx St. Jude Classic, TPC Southwind, Memphis, Tennessee, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 70):
131Robert Karlsson (Swe) 66 65
134Keegan Bradley 67 67, Colt Knost 66 68
135John Merrick 66 69
136Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 71 65, Harrison Frazar 71 65
137Kris Blanks 66 71, Scott Stallings 69 68, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 71 66, Fabian Gomez (Arg) 67 70, George McNeill 70 67, David Mathis 65 72, Brandt Snedeker 71 66, Troy Matteson 70 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 69 68
138Kent Jones 68 70, Tim Herron 73 65, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 70 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 69 69, Kevin Kisner 66 72, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69 69, Shane Bertsch 71 67
139Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 71, David Hearn (Can) 69 70, Ben Curtis 71 68, Charles Howell III 72 67, Blake Adams 72 67, Shaun Micheel 68 71, Jimmy Walker 69 70, Jonathan Byrd 71 68, Cameron Tringale 71 68, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69 70
140Andres Gonzales 75 65, Aron Price (Aus) 69 71, Paul Stankowski 71 69, Marco Dawson 68 72, Michael Putnam 71 69, Cameron Percy (Aus) 70 70, John Rollins 70 70, DJ Brigman 72 68, Boo Weekley 68 72, Rich Beem 72 68, Marc Turnesa 72 68
141Spencer Levin 72 69, Kirk Triplett 73 68, Jeff Quinney 68 73, Zack Miller 70 71, Tag Ridings 68 73, Jim Renner 72 69, Chris Couch 71 70, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 71 70, Heath Slocum 68 73, John Mallinger 70 71, Will MacKenzie 71 70, Chad Campbell 72 69, Mike Small 72 69, Brett Quigley 71 70, Dicky Pride 70 71, Brian Davis (Eng) 71 70, Jerry Kelly 72 69, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 75 66, Zach Johnson 73 68, Steve Flesch 70 71, Greg Chalmers (Aus) 72 69, Tom Pernice Jnr. 70 71, Sung-hoon Kang (Kor) 70 71, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 71, Scott Gutschewski 68 73, D.J. Trahan 74 67
142John Senden (Aus) 69 73, Bobby Gates 74 68, Garrett Willis 71 71, Todd Hamilton 72 70, Graham Delaet (Can) 73 69, John Daly 69 73, Ben Crane 73 69, Kevin Stadler 73 69, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 74 68, Craig Barlow 70 72, Johnson Wagner 74 68, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 73 69, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 70 72, Frank Lickliter II 71 71
The following players failed to make the cut
143Brendon De Jonge 71 72, Michael Bradley 70 73, Michael Letzig 70 73, Robert Garrigus 70 73, Billy Mayfair 75 68, Chris DiMarco 72 71, Steven Bowditch (Aus) 74 69, Scott Piercy 71 72, Sam Saunders 76 67, Brendan Steele 69 74, Steve Marino 69 74, Matt Mcquillan (Can) 70 73, Bryce Molder 70 73, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 70 73
144Bob Estes 71 73, Will Strickler 70 74, Bobby Hudson 69 75, Daniel Summerhays 72 72, Jim Herman 73 71, Scott Verplank 76 68, Christopher Baryla (Can) 72 72
145Nate Smith 74 71, Justin Hicks 74 71, David Toms 75 70, Chez Reavie 74 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 74 71, Alex Aragon 73 72, Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 71 74, Anthony Kim 75 70, Len Mattiace 68 77, Billy Horschel 71 74, Briny Baird 72 73, Matt Weibring 76 69
146Scott McCarron 75 71, Brian Gay 71 75, Joe Ogilvie 75 71, Woody Austin 71 75, Lee Janzen 77 69, J.P. Hayes 75 71, James Driscoll 75 71, William McGirt 74 72, Michael Thompson 73 73, Robert Damron 75 71, Patrick Reed 71 75
147Ben Martin 72 75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 78 69, Cameron Beckman 74 73, Joseph Bramlett 72 75, Scott Gordon 72 75
148Jarrod Lyle (Aus) 75 73, Bio Kim (Kor) 72 76, Vance Veazey 73 75
149Chris Tidland 71 78, Anthony Paolucci 74 75, Mark Hensby (Aus) 72 77, Martin Piller 68 81, Jason Bohn 73 76
150Michael Connell 79 71, Matt Bettencourt 80 70, Carl Paulson 73 77, Jeff Klauk 78 72, Joe Durant 77 73, Steve Lee 77 73, Craig Bowden 79 71, Jason Gore 76 74
153Clark Richardson 76 77, Tom Gillis 74 79
160Kip Henley 82 78
WD: Alex Cejka (Ger) 72, Chad Collins 73, Fran Quinn 71
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)