Players' Championship: Time was when such dizzy heights might have led to a nosebleed, or an inclination to cast a worried glance back at those in pursuit. Now, though, Padraig Harrington knows what it takes to beat the best, including the world number one - after all, he did it head-to-head in the Target World Challenge last December - and he knows he belongs in the higher echelon of the game.

Now, as midway leader of the Players' Championship, the tournament with the biggest purse in golf, the time has come to deliver on his destiny.

It is said that truly great champions have a way of dictating their own destiny. "Destino," is how Seve Ballesteros described it; and Ben Hogan talked of "outworking, out-thinking and intimidating" challengers.

For Harrington, fate has decreed that he face into the voyage of discovery this weekend by turning contention into something more tangible.

There is a title, one of the most precious, to be claimed, and after playing 26 holes yesterday - finishing his weather-interrupted first round with a 67, and following up with a 68 for nine-under-par 135 - the Dubliner is in pole position to take the $1.17 million winner's prize.

Harrington didn't play perfect golf, or anything like it. "There wasn't much simplicity," he admitted. "No hitting it down the middle all the time, no finding the green all the time. I had to work really hard to get it up and down, and mentally it was all very tough."

In fact, he found just seven of 14 fairways in his second round, when he was off-balance on a number of occasions off the tee, the consequence of a hip injury.

The end result, however, was that Harrington's graft and mental fortitude reaped a dividend that left him in the lead, two shots clear of Davis Love and defending champion Craig Perks.

After a slow start to the year, which has seen him fail to muster a top-10 finish, everything seems to be coming right. His wife, Caroline, is expecting their first child later this year - in August - and, on the golf course, the tweaking that he has undergone with his swing, the increased fitness regime that has seen him become even leaner and his weight drop to 12½st, and the work with sports psychologist Bob Rotella are giving him the confidence to believe he can achieve more than he ever believed in the game.

"Why did I make so many changes to my game in the winter break? Because, if you try to stand still, you're going to go backwards. I'm fairly motivated to get better and I have a pretty good idea of where I am going.

"I'm number 10 in the world and I'm tremendously comfortable at that. But I know I can be higher, and I've got the belief and focus to be better," he insisted.

Yesterday, at the TPC at Sawgrass, Harrington demonstrated why he doesn't fear anybody, and why he doesn't look to see how anyone else is playing. "I'm only worried about me. It might be selfish, but that's how you have to be in this game," he insisted.

With no sight or sound of the electric storms that raged on Thursday, forcing Harrington and 67 other players to return to the course to complete their first rounds, the Irishman walked to the 11th green that was shrouded in mist in the morning and replaced his marker with his ball.

He duly rolled in the six-foot birdie putt, and set the trend for the day.

Harrington followed with a hat-trick of birdies from the 13th, and didn't drop a shot before reaching the recorder's hut and handing in his card for a 67, giving him the co-lead with Fred Couples.

With the sunshine gradually making the previously receptive greens a little firmer, Harrington had just half-an-hour's break before resuming work and underwent some quick treatment from his medical practitioner, Dale Richardson.

He started with a bogey, on the 10th, but then regained his birdie touch with a beautifully flighted chip from rough on the 11th to three feet. He hit a nine-iron tee-shot on the 13th to 10 feet and sank that putt.

On the 15th, after splitting the fairway, he walked up to the ball only to see a big blob of mud attached to it. Harrington's approach curled menacingly into a bunker, some 24 yards from the flag, but he proceeded to hole out. Another birdie. He maintained the roll by birdieing the 16th, from four feet, and he had the tournament lead on his own.

The run home was tougher. The hip started to cause problems with his balance - most noticeably on the sixth, where he almost fell over after hitting his tee-shot - but, apart from one blip when he three-putted the third for bogey, he kept his focus.

The Dubliner's reward was to add birdies at the second and the fifth, where he played a superb nine-iron approach of 153 yards from a waste bunker to 10 feet.

Going into the weekend, you won't find him glancing over his shoulder. He fears nobody.

"Playing against Tiger, I got confidence - and it was great that Tiger was there. But I'd have been as intimidated if it was Ernie Els or Phil Mickelson or Davis Love in second place. These are all guys who were the big stars when I was an amateur. If you feel you're the underdog, it doesn't matter matter who you're coming up against. The comfort I got from that event was winning. It was new ground for me."

Tellingly, he is walking on new ground this weekend too - as leader of the Players'. And this guy doesn't intend to back off.