Els Storms into Doral Lead

Ernie Els produced a flawless 66 to open a one-shot lead at the halfway stage of the WGC-CA Championship at Doral.

The South African last year failed to win a title for the first time since his rookie season in 1990, but the 40-year-old put himself in position to end his drought with a superb display in Miami.

Els finished a weather-interrupted second round on 10-under-par, one clear of Robert Allenby who experienced a day of wildly-fluctuating fortunes over the infamous Blue Monster course.

The Australian produced a superb hole-in-one to fire himself into a share of the lead only for a double-bogey to send him crashing out of it again.

On the opening day Allenby pitched in for an eagle and had six birdies to stand eight-under and four clear after 12 holes before bogeying the final four holes.

His ace on Friday came with a fairway wood at the 13th, his fourth hole of the day, and birdies at the 10th and 14th took the Melbourne golfer to eight-under once again.

However, trouble was lurking around the corner at the 16th and he ran up a six after driving into sand, duffing a pitch into another bunker and then missing from under four feet with the putter.

He responded with a birdie at the 17th and an incredible inward nine saw an eagle, three more birdies and three bogeys as he finished just adrift of Els.

American Bill Haas is the next closest challenger on seven-under after matching the 66 of Els, while overnight leader Charl Schwartzel is level with Haas after a 70 having been caught in midst of the thunderstorms predicted at the start of the day.
Inclement weather

Indeed, tournament officials made the wise decision to bring forward tee times by nearly three and a half hours in a bid to ensure the event remained on schedule.

There was also an encouraging move by Padraig Harrington who returned a 68 which included five birdies and just a single bogey to move into a share of fifth on six-under, although he remained cautious about his prospects of winning.

"I have a tradition, unfortunately for me, that I don't normally win out of the blue," he stated afterwards.

"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."

The Dubliner has Soren Hansen for company, the Dane carding a second consecutive 69 to maintain his momentum.

Six players are locked together at five-under including Vijay Singh (71), J.B Holmes (70) and Mike Weir (66).

However, it's Els that leads the way with the South African pleased to get in with his 66, declaring: "I'm just pleased we got it done. The weather is changing a lot.

"I'm in pretty good shape. Halfway there and, you know, just got to keep it up.

"I went back to the drawing board basically. I was a little bit worried going out this week because I've not really tested it in competition.

"But it's been two 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."

Neck injury for Poulter

But it was a far less positive day for England's Ian Poulter who slumped to a six-over-par 78 before later revealing he could be forced to pull out with 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."

Fellow Englishmen Paul Casey and Lee Westwood stand at three and two-under respectively.