American Express World Championship: As Tiger Woods set the pace, the second round of the American Express world championship in Atlanta proved to be a nightmare for Ireland's two competitors, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke.
Harrington, although driving the ball better than on Thursday, struggled with his irons and a baulky putter, and he finished with a three over par 73 to be four over for the tournament, while Clarke after a 10-over par first nine finished on 12 over par 82.
Harrington, starting the day at one over after opening with a 71, hit a perfect drive at the first but was unable to convert from 15 feet.
He missed a great chance to atone at the next, after splitting the fairway with a monster drive of 315 yards into the freshening breeze, but his approach from just 83 yards was woefully short, with the putt from 30 feet never threatening the hole.
Harrington then made a terrible swing on the tee at the par three third, finishing in one of the many greenside bunkers decorating this scenic downhill hole that measures 216 yards.
The recovery shot was played with finesse to within 10 feet but the putter refused to behave once again and a bogey four was the result.
Worse was to come as he made a complete mess of the par five fourth. After another great drive of 320 yards, the second shot was bunkered from where he took four more to hole out, meaning Harrington was two over for the day after only four holes.
Another bogey went down on the card at the seventh where he failed to get up and down from 50 feet behind the flag and it was a three over 38 for the front nine for the man, who coming into the week, had held out hopes of a high finish to improve his standing on the Volvo Order of Merit.
Things did improved over the back nine just as they had done on Thursday, with Harrington making birdies at the 12th and 15th but unfortunately dropping shots at 13th and 16th to play the back nine in level par for his 73.
"I played very well today and drove the ball a lot better," said Harrington.
"I didn't score as well as I should have done and I certainly left a few shots out there but it was a lot more promising.
"I hurt my neck last night but it wasn't as if I couldn't swing the club. I couldn't line up properly and I seemed to hit a couple of shots left because of my alignment.
"Unfortunately I didn't take advantage of some good drives but more of the same tomorrow and I just need to be a bit sharper."
Meanwhile, Clarke was having an absolute disaster, the man from Dungannon unable to make a par until he reached the fifth hole, where he finished 25 yards left of the hole on the driveable par four measuring 315 yards.
Prior to that Clarke had opened his round making four consecutive bogeys, and worse was to come as he triple bogeyed the par three sixth after failing to clear a hazard and being forced to play three off the tee.
Three more bogeys at seventh, eighth and ninth meant Clarke was 10-over par for his opening nine holes and nine over for the tournament in 50th place after beginning the day just two and a half hours earlier in a tie for eighth. After two more bogeys at the 10th and 11th Clarke had his second par at the 12th followed by a birdie two at the 13th but another bogey followed at the 15th in a roundof 82 and a total of 151,
Meanwhile, defending champion Tiger Woods was making claims for a second successive victory.
After reaching the turn in four under par 31 to open up a four shot lead over Rocco Mediate with overnight leader Sergi Garcia a shot further back, Woods dropped shots at the 10th and 15th to drop bach to six under par.
Mediate, meanwhile, cut the gap to three with four birdies in a row from the ninth as the pair headed into the closing holes.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)