Pádraig Harrington made the most of his early start in the second round of the WGC-CA Championship at Doral’s Blue Monster by carding a 68 to move to within four of leader Ernie Els.
The thunderstorms returned to Miami, however, to prevent Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy finishing their second rounds, though the latter, in particular, looks to have little to play for having dropped back to five over with 35 holes played.
The world number nine wasted a great start by bogeying three-in-a-row from the fourth after picking up shots at the first and third. He was steady from then on, parring everything from seven to 17.
McDowell moved to level par after playing 16 holes of his second round in two under and will harbour ambitions of improving over the weekend but the Irish challenge lies with Harrington, even if he is not so convinced.
“I have a tradition, unfortunately for me, that I don’t normally win out of the blue,” said Harrington after he moved up six places to a share of fifth alongside Denmark's Soren Hansen.
“It’s very rare. I normally warm up by getting into contention a few times.
“I’m happy with my scoring but I made a few mental errors out there and missed a few putts.
“Obviously, though, I hit enough good shots and I seemed to have a lot of reasonable chances for birdies.”
He’s never been one to get ahead of himself, but his ambition in this instance has perhaps been stunted by his drop to 13th in the world and a season’s best of 16th from four starts this year.
The Dubliner opened with a birdie at the 10th and improved to two under for the round at the par-four 16th.
Having finished his first round with a superb birdie at the last, he failed to repeat the trick when he hooked his drive into the lake, but recovered to minimise the damage and take a bogey.
Three birdies followed on the way in at the second, third and eighth, shortly before play was held up because of an approaching thunderstorm.
The Irishman is three adrift of Robert Allenby (67) and one shy of Bill Haas (66). The American is level with Charl Schwartzel but the overnight leader from the first round still has one to play today.
Allenby’s second eventful day in a row included a hole-in-one with a fairway wood at the 245-yard 13th. The Australian has so far had three eagles, 12 birdies, seven bogeys and a double bogey as he tries for his first victory in the United States since 2001.
Like the rest, he’ll have to get past Els, who, having last year failed to win for the first time since his rookie season in 1990, has given himself a great chance to reignite his career.
“I went back to the drawing board basically,” said Els. “I was a little bit worried going out this week because I’ve not really tested it in competition.
“But it’s been too good days, especially where I was last week. I just got out of whack and when you make changes you’ve got to hit a million balls to get used to it.”
Three weeks on from his World Match Play victory, Harrington’s playing partner, Ian Poulter, crashed to near last place with a 78 before revealing he has been troubled by a neck injury.
“I nearly didn’t play yesterday,” said the world number five. “The neck’s been coming on for a while and the pillows are not very good this week.
“My usual physio guy is in Australia so I had to get some treatment when I got to the course and as I went to practice I still wasn’t sure I’d be playing.”
There is no halfway cut in the tournament and he will have to make a decision on whether it is wise to continue for the closing 36 holes if the problem persists.
Paul Casey remained three under with a 72 while Lee Westwood was two under with two to play.