Golf:Padraig Harrington continued to press his claim for a Ryder Cup wild-card after climbing the leaderboard on the second day of the Barclays. With Harrington, Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Justin Rose all vying for a place at the Celtic Manor, the Dubliner moved into pole position in New Jersey.
All four have elected to stay in the States rather than cross the Atlantic for the final Ryder Cup qualifying event at Gleneagles.
European captain Colin Montgomerie has just three picks, with one of the quartet certain to lose out. The Scot will make his decision on Sunday evening, before the Barclays has even finished, so how they fare over the opening three rounds could have a huge bearing on Montgomerie’s thinking.
A closing bogey may have left a sour taste for Harrington but a round of 68 moved him to five under and within striking distance of the lead. Perhaps more importantly, at least from a Ryder Cup point of view, Harrington was one shot better than Casey and four ahead of both Donald and Rose.
“I believe that Monty should make a decision based on the full year and who is going to play consistently and who we can rely on to play well," said Harrington after his round. "But in the last tournament of the year, a couple of days before the team is going to be picked, it’s nice to be showing a bit of form. It won’t do me any harm. It’s no burden to carry it, let’s say.”
Six birdies more than cancelled out his three dropped shots to boost his bid for victory in the opening event of the FedEx Cup series, although he admitted: “I should be better than five under par myself. But it’s neither here nor there, if it stays within a few of the lead that’s fine. I’m in position to (challenge) as long as nobody runs away with it.”
John Senden looked in the mood to do just that as he birdied four of the first five holes, reaching eight under par and moving a shot ahead of Kevin Streelman and Tiger Woods.
World number one Woods made hay on the front nine yesterday and carried on his impressive form with two birdies after starting from the 10th hole today, but a bogey at the second dropped him just off the summit.
Streelman, one over par after the first round, produced a superb round of 63 to fire himself into contention. Having also started on the back nine, he had a run of six birdies in seven holes from the 18th to thank for his surge up the leaderboard.
Stewart Cink shot 69 to sit a shot further back, level with Brian Gay after the latter birdied the third and fifth but bogeyed the seventh.
Webb Simpson carded a 65 featuring nine birdies to race to five under, but Adam Scott was unable to build on his opening 66 as a level-par 71 left him on the same mark.