PGA Championship: In a rather curious way, it seemed for a time yesterday that this leafy estate in the stockbroker belt west of London had been turned into a giant psychoanalyst's coach. You almost expected Sigmund Freud, or some such personage, to materialise and lend a consoling and understanding ear to interpret the dreams of David Howell and Nick Dougherty.
Was it a coincidence that Howell, who has taken a stranglehold on the BMW Championship, shooting an inspired round yesterday of 65 in extremely difficult, windy conditions for a midway total of 133, 11-under, recalled a dream involving Seve Ballesteros?
Or that Nick Dougherty, his chief pursuer, three shots adrift, also pondered the plots in dreams?
On a day where an early morning deluge forced play to be delayed, with the result that the second round was incomplete when darkness descended, Howell - the current European Tour order of merit leader and a certainty for Europe's Ryder Cup at The K Club - played sublime golf, bizarrely reminiscent of how his childhood hero Ballesteros conquered this same course so frequently in his prime.
When prompted that Dougherty had earlier testified to dreaming of winning this championship, Howell brought out a story from his own memory bank.
"I can't say I've ever dreamt of winning the Open, but I once dreamt of playing with Seve at my home club (in Swindon) and we reached the third hole and there was a football pitch in the way. We never got to finish," he explained.
All of which indicated some sort of unfinished business, which is not how Dougherty had outlined his own dreams. In fact, Dougherty, who shot a second round 69 for a 136 total, didn't require anyone to analyse his nocturnal dreams. Put simply, he won!
As the player outlined: "I did dream I had won last night . . . I won, it wasn't even a contest. I beat Luke (Donald). I shot 63 on the last day and he only shot 70. I don't like my dreams to be too stressful down the stretch."
The reality, of course, is something different. If anyone was in dreamland yesterday, it was Howell. On a course playing extremely difficult, he bogeyed the third hole and didn't drop another shot again; rather, he imposed his will, with no fewer than eight birdies over the remaining 15 holes.
It was an awesome display of golf, which came just a week after he was forced to withdraw prior to the Irish Open as a precautionary measure due to a chronic back injury.
The lingering effect of his back injury is that Howell's regime on the driving range is limited, particularly after finishing a round. Perhaps that is no bad thing. "I'm not in chronic pain or anything but I know it is not right and at its worst it is uncomfortable," he explained.
Certainly, he has taken pole position in the quest for the €708,330 top prize. And, rightly, should he win here, he would consider it an even greater achievement than when he fended off Tiger Woods in the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai last November.
"This is a huge tournament. Shanghai was a new tournament, there's no history there. This is a different ballgame, and the strongest field that Europe can produce. I'd be very honoured to win it. There's a long way to go, but hopefully I can give myself a chance."
When play was finally halted in the gathering gloom last night, with 12 players still to complete their rounds, the cut line was predicted to fall at two-over which meant that three Irish players - Peter Lawrie, Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington - had survived into the weekend, with Darren Clarke and Gary Murphy set to miss out by one stroke.
Lawrie was the leading Irish player, adding a 72 to his opening 68 to be on 140, four-under; McDowell came in with a 70 for 141, while Harrington eagled the last for a 70, to be on 142.
"It was just a tough day," claimed Lawrie, "and I did well to finish level par. It was easy to miss fairways out there the way the wind was, and trying to hit greens from the rough was very difficult."
The highlight of Lawrie's round came on the par-five fourth, where he had 210 yards to the flag and hit a four-iron second shot that looked superb from the moment it left the clubface. The ball pitched short of the green and ran up to the hole. For a second, it looked destined to fall into the hole for an albatross two. But it lipped out, and left him with a tap-in of no more than six inches for an eagle.
Harrington, too, carded an eagle; but it took him considerably longer to achieve the feat coming on the 18th after a run of 10 successive pars. Faced with 239 yards to the flag, the Dubliner hit a five-wood approach to 15 feet below the hole and he wasn't sure that the putt would drop until it begrudgingly fell back into the hole.
"I spent most of the time playing a little more protective. The conditions were tough and you couldn't really cut loose too much.
"I find it a tough golf course. It doesn't give up too much. Hopefully now I can open up a little bit at the weekend and go for broke."
Maybe a pleasant dream of glory, ala Howell and Dougherty, wouldn't do any harm at some juncture over the weekend!
