AT&T Pebble Beach round two: Lefty proves the perfect match for Furyk

Who needs Tiger Woods when you’ve got a battle as engrossing as Friday’s between Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson? For my money Lefty took the honours for the way he frustrated Jim’s bid to show the pack a clean pair of heels.

It’s reassuring to know American weather forecasters are as hapless as our lot, although it makes trying to second guess play mighty difficult. A big factor in Friday’s proceedings was how the wind retreated, meaning the courses played pretty much as they did last year (second round averages, with 06 in brackets: Poppy Hills 72.5 (72.5); Spyglass Hill 72.4 (72.5); {Pebble Beach 71.7 (72.3)). One thing those figures highlight is how much Thursday’s Pebble Beach crew suffered.

We can only hope the wind leaves off again Saturday as this clash of the titans unfolds. Again Mickelson looks to have a slight edge: he is on Spyglass Hill where he went as low as 62 in 2005. Furyk is on Pebble Beach, where he did manage a 64 way back in 2000 but since then has not carded better than 68 last year.

Of course the fun doesn’t stop there: how about Davis Love III springing to life with a 67 on Pebble Beach? Or even Vijay Singh making up for Thursday’s roundus horribilis with a 66 on Poppy Hills to stand seven shots off the lead? Both players can take encouragement from the fact that Woods strode to victory from 8 behind at the half way stage in 2000 and Love himself was nine behind after two rounds when he won a year later.

Against that, you’d have to conclude that if the leaders keep up their current form they are going to be very hard to catch by anyone more than a few strokes back.

PS: I maligned Padraig Harrington Thursday. I missed the fact that he had risen from his death-bed suffering from flu to play. In which case, all credit to that Irishman.