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Woods leads Open

21/07/2006

Tournament favourite Tiger Woods took the lead today in this year's Open Championship after holing out with his second shot from 200 yards on the par four 14th at Hoylake.

Woods' amazing eagle, added to six other birdies and just one dropped shot, helped the three-time Open winner to a second consecutive round of 65, giving him a three-shot lead at 12-under par.

For much of the day American Chris DiMarco was his nearest rival, who began the day on two-under-par after a mixed round yesterday before shooting up from the middle of a wide field by birdying four consecutive holes around the turn at Royal Liverpool.

Although dropping a shot on the 17th he came back to birdie the last, shooting a 135 to take second place at the halfway stage of the tournament on nine-under-par.

But it was South African Ernie Els whose late round dominated Hoylake in mid-afternoon, working his way up the leaderboard with six birdies and no dropped shots to reach ten under par with two holes left to play.

Earlier this morning there was a flash in the pan from Spanish golfer Miguel Angel Jimenez, who at one stage had a four-shot lead after an eagle at the par five fifth.

Unfortunately a series of bogeys on the seventh, eighth and 11th holes saw him slip back to six-under-par, although a birdie on the 18th helped him back into joint fourth on seven-under-par.

The overnight leaders also slipped back, Englishmen Anthony Wall dropped back to four-under-par while Greg Owen moved to six-under-par, while Graeme McDowell could only manage a 73 to drop to joint tenth place on five-under-par.

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