GOLF:PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON provided a timely reminder of his ability to European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie with a second solid round to leave himself in contention at the Barclays.
A 68, following on from yesterday’s opening 69, left the Dubliner five under par and three shots off the lead after Australian John Senden’s flying start to his second round.
Harrington, waiting on Montgomerie’s wild card selections to discover if he will compete at Celtic Manor, said: “After missing the cut in the (USPGA) the last thing I wanted was to come here and miss the cut-off or play poorly here and then say, well, maybe I’m out of form.
“I believe 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. 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, 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.
Senden 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 on Thursday and carried on his impressive form with two birdies after starting from the 10th hole yesterday, but a bogey at the second dropped him just off the summit. Three more bogeys were to follow on the way in as he had to settle for a disappointing 73.
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. Paul Casey, another awaiting Montgomerie’s call, was four under after a second successive 69.
