Harrington grabs Florida PGA lead

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington completed a four-under-par 66 on Saturday to seize a one-stroke lead over American Patrick Reed after the second round of the storm-hit US PGA Tour’s Honda Classic.

Harrington, a three-time major champion who has slid to 297th in the world rankings, could have enjoyed a larger margin but a bogey-bogey finish left him on seven-under 133 after 36 holes.

“At times I get lost and distracted from the process,” Harrington said. “Ultimately that’s what has changed. I had it going out there for a while. I was struggling with it the last couple of holes.”

The 43-year-old Dubliner won the 2007 and 2008 British Open and 2008 PGA Championship, the last of those being his most recent PGA victory.

Reed, who won the Tournament of Champions in January and defends his World Golf Championships title at Doral next week, fired a 67 to take second.

England’s Ian Poulter shot 64 to share third on 135 with American Brendan Steele while England’s Luke Donald was on 136 with Scotsman Russell Knox and American Jim Herman another shot adrift.

Nearly four hours of delays for lightning on Friday meant half the field needed to finish the second round Saturday morning.

The third round began in threesomes off the first and 10th tees in windy and overcast conditions with players able to lift and clean balls and the leaders unlikely to finish before dark.

In all, 71 players made the cut, although world number one Rory McIlroy was not among them, struggling to a second-round 74 to finish on 147, three shots over the cut line.

Harrington, playing on a sponsor’s exemption, began his second round off the 10th tee Friday afternoon and birdied the 12th and 16th before darkness arrived.

He returned Saturday with a birdie at the 17th and added another at the first before finding troubles in windy conditions. Harrington followed a bogey at the third with three birdies in a row, but stumbled at the finish to draw his rivals nearer.

Poulter’s sizzling round saw him birdie the par-5 third, eagle the fourth and birdie the par-3 fifth. The Englishman added birdies at the eighth and 14th holes and answered his lone bogey at the par-3 15th with a birdie at the par-3 17th.

“It was always going to be tricky,” Poulter said of the windy conditions. “The round started to pick up. I putted nicely. I played a pretty steady round.”

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