Harrington hangs on as rain soaks Augusta

Vijay Singh, the US Masters champion in 2000, led by three shots halfway through the second round of this year's event when rain forced play to be suspended a little after 6pm local time. A magnificent 65, seven-under par and with a homeward half of 30, saw him ahead of Retief Goosen with Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Angel Cabrera a shot further away on 139, five-under par.

It was an international leaderboard with a Fijiian leading from an Irishman, a Spaniard and an Argentinian, while others in the top dozen included another Spaniard, Miguel Angel Jimenez, and a Dane, Thomas Bjorn (both 141).

Singh had hit a 63 when he came to practice before the Masters and admitted that "it eased my mind a little bit". He added: "I thought 'Well, that wasn't so difficult.'"

Yesterday's 65 also looked easy and the almost regal air he adopts when playing well was combined with an air of relaxation. He knows not only that he can do 63s, but also that he can win at Augusta.

Harrington was finding life a little more difficult than in his first round, when he birdied six of the first 11 holes, with no bogies. Although he hit his second shot at the first hole to 2 feet for an opening, and settling, birdie, he dropped that shot at the short fourth. His tee shot cleared the green, he chipped back to seven feet, but the par putt refused.

Overnight rain, which continued for much of the morning, was making play difficult and water was spraying from the fairways whenever a shot was hit. The fairway crosswalks were, according to a Harrington supporter, "like walking in mushy peas" but the greens, thankfully, were holding up and play was able to continue.

The Irishman birdied the 9th and 10th but the 13th, which cost him in the first round, did so again yesterday. This time he avoided the water, his second shot finishing just through the green, 25 feet from the pin. The eagle attempt failed narrowly but the ball had just enough on it to roll down a slope and it finished fully 60 feet from the hole. Three putts, including a missed five-footer, ensured the bogey.

Harrington, however, hit a lovely second in to the difficult 14th green, leaving himself a seven-foot trickler, and the Irishman permitted himself a big grin when it fell in. He had an eagle chance at the par five 15th, but a 30-footer lipped out, causing him to bend his body in anguish as it rolled away from the hole.

Garcia, finding form elusive, at least had a moment of luck at the 11th. His second seemed destined for the lake on the left, but it hit the bank and stayed there. The Spaniard salvaged a five when a six had seemed a certainty. Not that it pleased him. He gave his bag an angry swipe with the putter as he walked to the next tee.

Harrington's first-round 69 was put in jeopardy by his customary slow play and as a result the group were put on the clock, the timing starting on the tee of the short 16th. Harrington was the last of the trio to play and Mark Russell, the US tour official in charge, timed him as having taken 51 seconds to play his shot.

In addition to being 11 seconds more than is allowed, this is an enormous amount of time to take over any shot, particularly when you have had the benefit of two other players hitting their shots before you are required to play yourself.

Harrington hit a fine tee shot, to six feet, but as he walked towards the green Russell told him he had exceeded the time limit on the tee and that this was an official warning. On the US tour that would mean that a further offence would lead to a fine of $5,000 (£3,500), another and it would be a penalty stroke plus a $10,000 fine.

The Irishman then missed his birdie chance and shot three angry glances in the direction of the official, whose fault it very definitely was not. Yesterday Russell, an experienced tour official and a man with a sense of humour, was unworried by Harrington's anger. "He's an accountant," smiled Russell, "he's not going to do anything fast."

Thomas Bjorn is a deceptive golfer in that he always appears to be calmness personified although his rounds often contain volcanic-style eruptions, which cool like the lava of the real thing.

Yesterday he began like a great Dane, reverted to being a lame Dane and recovered like a game Dane for a round of 67. He started the day at two-over par, but five successive birdies from the first took care of that. None of the putts were over eight feet following a succession of superb iron shots and his run set a new record for the Masters, beating four by Ken Venturi in 1956 and Paul Harney in 1968.

It was almost six in succession, because his birdie attempt from 50 feet at the short sixth was only inches away. No sooner had he got to three-under, though, than shots began to slip away. One went at the seventh, more at 10th and 11th to take him back to level, before three more birdies, again successively, from the 12th, brought him back onto the leaderboard at three-under.

Tiger Woods, two-under overnight, survived a shaky start in which he could have dropped shots at the second and third before birdying the seventh to move to three-under at the turn, by no means out of contention.

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