Golf: Padraig Harrington predicted before the start of the Accenture Matchplay Championship that there would be those who won their games despite playing only average golf, and he made that come true in the first round and again in the second yesterday when he went through 3 and 2.

On the sodden La Costa course, the Dubliner took advantage of an out-of-form Bob Estes, the American having a double bogey and two bogeys on his way to a four-over 40 after nine holes. That put Harrington four up, despite being level par, at best.

He finished the match off on the 16th for a 3 and 2 victory.

He had beaten Toshi Izawa in the first round, the Japanese taking 42 to the turn and doing little better on the way back.

But in last night's third round Harrington's luck began to change for the worst. Though he had jumped to a three-hole lead over David Toms through nine, two birdies by the American and a bogey from Harrington had levelled it again through 15.

Darren Clarke was another who was hardly producing his best, being one over par after 11 holes in his second round, but that was good enough to be five up on the unfortunate Alex Cejka, who had five bogeys in that stretch.

Clarke, having started at the 10th, got back to level par with a birdie at the long third, and won at the next, 6 and 5.

"The scoreline flattered me a little bit," said Clarke. "Everything Alex tried didn't come off."

In last night's third round the Ulsterman was in a tight battle with Kenny Perry, but held a slim one-hole lead through 13 holes.

With 36 holes due to be played yesterday after the Californian rain-out on Thursday, Clarke was grateful for the quick win in the morning because he knew he was going to have his new-found fitness properly tested.

The Dungannon man has lost two-and-a-half stone through dieting, cutting down on alcohol and going to the gym and, for the first time in his career, looks trim. He went 25 holes in the first round against Eduardo Romero at the end of which he declared himself completely fresh.

Tiger Woods, out in a four-under 32 against the South African Trevor Immelman, was five up after 11 holes and went on to win 5 and 4, and headed into a meeting with Fredrik Jacobson, who beat Thomas Bjorn 5 and 4.

After beating Nick Price in the first round, holing two crucial long putts, Colin Montgomerie declared it had boosted his confidence to such an extent that he felt he would be, metaphorically, one up on the first tee in his second-round match.

But as it turned out he really did not need such an advantage: he played so well that Stewart Cink appeared to be sunk after only eight holes. Montgomerie was five under par for that stretch and four up, a spell that harked back to his very best days when he was winning seven successive European order of merit titles. He went on to win 6 and 4.

"Stewart didn't do much wrong at all but I started out with a couple of early birdies and got the momentum going," said a delighted Montgomerie, who began the week 57th in the world rankings and in need of a good performance to get back into the elite top 50.

Phil Mickelson equalled the record margin for victory in this event, 7 and 6, when he beat the British Open champion, Ben Curtis.

Curtis represents the entire argument of those who maintain that the world rankings are unfairly skewed towards those who win major championships. Before his triumph at Royal St George's, Curtis was not only ranked 369th in the world, he had not finished in the top 10 of any tournament as a professional.

Nor has he since, but winning the British Open took him into the world top 40 and he has remained there despite playing very poorly. That means he gets to play in the mega-rich world championships as well as the majors, and there are those who maintain this is a disproportionate reward for the achievement.

He earned, for instance, $60,000 for finishing last in the Mercedes Championship at the start of the year and there is $75,000 on offer for second-round losers here. There are many players with much better overall records who would love to have the chance to get their hands on that kind of money.