Defending champion Padraig Harrington conjured up a touch of magic at the final hole to share the lead with fellow European Ian Poulter after the second round at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament today.

Harrington, stymied by a couple of trees from taking dead aim at the pin with his second shot at the par-five 18th, hit a big fade from 247 yards, almost holing out before tapping in for eagle on another pleasant day at Phoenix Country Club in Miyazaki.

"I listened to the crowd and their reaction told me it was very close. I thought it was maybe six or seven feet, but when I came up I found it was a foot away," he said after carding five-under-par 65, equal to the day's best round.

The Open champion joined first round leader Poulter (68) on seven-under 133, one stroke ahead of Finn Mikko Ilonen (65) and Japanese duo Shingo Katayama (67) and Daisuke Maruyama (67).

Harrington's strong finish more than made amends for a three-putt bogey at the 17th, and he was in no mood to complain about his position, especially after a slow start that included a bogey at the second hole.

"Three or four holes into the round my caddie was having a stern talk with me," he revealed. "I wanted to start quickly and I did the opposite. I was getting frustrated and losing patience.

"He was at pains to point out we'd only played 22 holes and there were 50 holes to go. After that I made some birdies and got right into the thick of things.

"I need to be in contention to keep the adrenaline there and I'm right where I want to be and need to be. I'm happy to be where I am."

Poulter also finished in style with a birdie at the last, after hitting an exquisitely judged 40-yard pitch shot from the rough that barely cleared an overhanging tree branch.

"The branch was really close," he said. "I knew it would miss by inches but you've got to play these shots sometimes. I had to get the ball up seriously quickly. It was only going to miss the branch by a couple of inches, and it did, so I played it perfectly."

Overall, however, Poulter was not thrilled with his performance. Not that he did a lot wrong, making just two bogeys, but it was not the impressive stuff he displayed in his opening 65.

"I didn't play as well as yesterday, so I'm going to the range to hit 20 or 30 balls to get the feeling back," he continued.

"My timing was a tiny bit out. It wasn't bad, but yesterday was very, very good. Today was okay (but) I don't want to play okay.

"I'm going to have some nice sushi tonight, some Miyazaki beef, go to bed, play well tomorrow and see what happens on Sunday."

While Harrington and Poulter played in front of sparse galleries, 16-year-old amateur Ryo Ishikawa again attracted the vast majority of spectators.

And he did not disappoint, playing his usual aggressive game to shoot 68 and improve to equal 30th, seven strokes off the pace.

In May, Ishikawa won a Japan Tour event at the age of 15, becoming the youngest player ever to win on any recognised tour.

Collated second round scores & totals in the Japan Tour Dunlop Phoenix, Pheonix CC, Miyazaki, Japan

(Jpn unless stated, par 72):

133 Ian Poulter (Eng) 65 68, Padraig Harrington(Irl) 68 65

134 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 65, Daisuke Maruyama 67 67, Shingo Katayama 67 67

135 Yasuharu Imano 67 68, Luke Donald (Eng) 69 66, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa)
66 69

136 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 68, Toshinori Muto 65 71, Brendan Jones (Aus) 69
67, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 65 71

137 Azuma Yano 71 66, David Smail (Nzl) 69 68, Craig Parry (Aus) 71 66, S K Ho
(Kor) 67 70, Toru Taniguchi 69 68

138 Kaname Yokoo 69 69, Masaya Tomida 70 68, Shigeki Maruyama 69 69, Henrik
Stenson (Swe) 69 69

139 Tetsuya Haraguchi 69 70, Hiroyuki Fujita 68 71, Hideto Tanihara 68 71,
Taichi Teshima 70 69, Dong-Hwan Lee 70 69, Yusaku Miyazato 68 71, Tatsuhiko
Takahashi 72 67, Paul Sheehan (Aus) 70 69

140 Tommy Nakajima 69 71, Chris Campbell (Aus) 66 74, Greg Meyer (USA) 68 72,
Tomohiro Kondo 68 72, Takashi Kanemoto 68 72, Mamo Osanai 68 72, Ryo Ishikawa 72
68, Katsumasa Miyamoto 68 72

Prayad Marksaeng (Tha) 69 71, Tetsuji Hiratsuka 68 72, Brandt Snedeker (USA) 70
70

141 Mitsuhiro Tateyama 72 69, Kiyoshi Miyazato 70 71, Nobuhito Sato 68 73,
Kenichi Kuboya 69 72

142 Hiroo Kawai 69 73, Keiichiro Fukabori 71 71, Hideki Kase 74 68, Makoto
Inoue 70 72, Kazuhika Hosokawa 69 73, Takao Nogami 74 68, Nobuhiro Masuda 72 70

143 Ryoken Kawagishi 71 72, Hirofumi Miyase 71 72, Jun Kikuchi 71 72, Katsumune
Imai 72 71, Tadahiro Takayama 75 68, Masahiro Kuramoto 70 73, Ryuichi Oda 76 67,
Hisayuki Sasaki 70 73, Yui Ueda 73 70

The following players failed to make the cut:

144 Naruhito Ueda 72 72, Masashi Ozaki 72 72, Satoru Hirota 75 69, Tatsuhiko
Ichihara 71 73, Keng-chi Lin (Tai) 71 73

145 Koumei Oda 75 70, Toru Suzuki 70 75, Tim Clark (Rsa) 70 75, Yoshikazu Haku
71 74, Toshimitsu Izawa 69 76

146 Wei-Tze Yeh (Tai) 74 72, Katsuyoshi Tomori 73 73, Kiyoshi Maita 72 74

147 Hidemasa Hoshino 76 71, Wayne Perske (Aus) 71 76, Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 73

148 Steven Conran (Aus) 73 75, Takuya Taniguchi 71 77

150 Ik-Je Chang (Kor) 73 77, Norio Shinozaki 76 74

153 Kiyoshi Murota 75 78

157 Hidemichi Tanaka 79 78

158 Teruo Sugihara 78 80