Westwood Takes Charge in Dubai

Lee Westwood carded a 3-under 69 in the second round to take a two-shot lead in the $7.5 million Dubai World Championship, the European Tour's season-ending event.

The 36-year-old from England capped his day with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole of the Greg Norman-designed Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. Westwood's two-day total is 9-under 135.

He leads first-round leader Robert Allenby of Australia (72), three-time major champion Padraig Harrington (69), England's Ross McGowan (66), Northern Ireland's young Rory McIlroy (69), South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen (66) and Colombia's Camillo Villegas (71), who are all tied for second at 137.

Harrington's round would have ended on a happier note except he hit twice into a water hazard on the 18th hole for a double-bogey seven.

Westwood, who would win the season-long $7.5 million Race to Dubai with a victory at Jumeirah, was pleased with his second round. "Yeah, I'm delighted with 69," he said. "It was certainly much harder than yesterday (Thursday) with the wind blowing. If I'm honest, some of the flag positions didn't really fit my eye, so I was finding it difficult out there.

"I was playing kind of a plodding game in between the second and 16th holes. Some days, that happens. You struggle to get things going, the birdies don't quite come so freely, and then you have to just dig in there and just grind it out for a while."

Harrington has experienced blow-up holes in other tournaments this year, and he's hoping his latest miscue on the 18th won't doom him in this event. He lost the WGC-Bridgestone at Firestone to Tiger Woods and failed to defend his title in the PGA Championship at Hazeltine, carding "snowmans" in both.

As usual, Harrington put a positive spin on his latest misstep. "It probably has no consequence on whether I'm going to win this tournament or not. I'm glad it wasn't Sunday afternoon I did it. Much better on a Friday," he said.

"I would have taken a round of 69 going out. I definitely would have taken being one shot out of the lead. But this is a good position going into the weekend."

McIlroy, the Race to Dubai leader heading into the tournament, got off to a fast start, carding a 5-under 31 on the front nine. But he couldn't sustain the momentum on the back, notching two bogeys and the rest pars. "It was like nearly the complete opposite of yesterday. Not best on the front nine and then very good on the back nine, whereas I was the other way around today," he said.

"I have to think I'm still in a good position going into the weekend to not dwell on the lost opportunities on the back nine there."

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