GOLF/PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP:WHAT'S THIS with Graeme McDowell, that his tournament mentality seems to demand that he reserves his best for the biggest events?

Yesterday, on a sweltering day in the Florida heat at the TPC Sawgrass, McDowell – the reigning US Open champion – produced an eventful second round 69 for a midway total of 136, eight-under-par, to barge his way into the business end of dealings at The Players championship.

Although two shots adrift of clubhouse leader David Toms, McDowell – after a frustrating couple of months finally found the right swing in competition in a round that featured no less than seven birdies, a double bogey and two bogeys.

In admitting he arrived in Sawgrass unsure of where his game was, as he worked on restructuring his swing with coach Pete Cowen in recent weeks, McDowell remarked: “To be honest, I’m really going into this weekend with no expectations because I came here with a new swing, if you like.

“It’s a small variation on the old one, but I was really here just trying to get some confidence, trying to make some good swings, and I’m just so happy the way I’ve played the last couple days.”

Yesterday’s round brought birdies at the first, eighth, 10th, 11th, 13th, 16th and 18th, along with an ugly double-bogey six at the 12th and bogeys at the 14th and 17th which threatened to derail his progress. However, a fine short iron approach to two feet on the finishing hole enabled the Ulsterman to move into contention.

The double-bogey came on the 12th, just after back-to-back birdies at the previous two holes.

“A bit up and down,” conceded McDowell of his round, describing with a touch of irony his double-bogey as “beautiful”. He ran up the six with a loose tee shot which finished under a bush and then, after chipping out, he duffed his next shot into a greenside bunker and failed to get up-and-down.

The topsy-turvy nature of his golf on the run-in was evidenced by three-putt bogeys on the 14th and 17th – which he described as “clumsy” – with bounce-back birdies, particularly the one on the 18th to ensure he stayed very much in the thick of the hunt for a title often considered the unofficial “fifth” major but officially with the biggest financial prize on the US Tour.

McDowell, who has moved to fifth in the world rankings from a position of 50th this time last year, was delighted to show a return to the sort of form which made him the hottest golfer in the game for a large part of last season.

In claiming his play since the Honda Classic (in March) had been “awful,” and acknowledging his game hit “rock bottom” in the New Orleans Classic last month, McDowell emphasised the session he had with his coach Cowen last week was hugely beneficial.

“Coming off the back of a great run of form for 10 months where it felt like everything was going my way and the game felt east, I took that four weeks off after Abu Dhabi (in February) and came back playing very averagely . . . I had a really good resetting session last weekend with Pete and we really went back to basics with the golf swing and found some good thoughts going forward.”

He continued: “The way I’ve been playing this season where I feel like I’m looking for a new thought every day, I’m going out there with a different swing thought, changing my swing thought mid round.

“I haven’t really had much structure, much direction, and that’s why I did well last year. I had a really consistent putter. I knew what I was trying to do. I’m really trying to get that back this year, and really feel like I turned the corner last week. Yeah, it’s been frustrating, and I certainly have not been very patient. But this game will do that to you.”

While McDowell headed into the weekend in contention for the title, Pádraig Harrington – a week on from his top-10 finish at the Wells Fargo in Quail Hollow – was set to miss the cut after a poor start to his second round which included a miserable run of bogey-bogey-double bogey from the 12th to the 14th, having started his round on the 10th.

Phil Mickelson, the 2007 champion, had a Jekyll and Hyde round with a front nine of 31 followed by a back nine 40 that left him on two under par 142 and needing, as he put it himself, “something low in the 60s to get back into it.”