Harrington makes Houston move

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington moved into contention at the halfway stage of the Shell Houston Open, however American Chris Kirk holds a surprise one-shot lead.

Kirk added a round of 69 to his opening 66 to improve to nine under par, while Harrington also scored 69 to reach seven under.

But it was defending champion Anthony Kim who stole the show in the second round, his sparkling eight-under 64 propelling him to a tie for second place with Johnson Wagner, who carded 67.

Kim, 25, spent much of his round having to recover from inaccurate tee shots, conjuring two superb shots from fairway bunkers to record birdies.

The 2008 Ryder Cup star ended up with eight birdies and remarkably no dropped shots.

Hat-trick

Kim said: “It helps a lot knowing I played well before, knowing I made a couple putts when it mattered and hit some quality golf shots when it did mattered really helps, especially since I won here in college about six, seven years ago.

“Some shots I had are similar, some putts I had are very similar, so I try to remember those things and play off that.”

Harrington, a three-time major champion, had looked set to move into a handy lead at the top of the leaderboard as, starting from the 10th, he recorded birdies at the 11th, 12th, 15th, 16th and 17th.

Harrington’s only dropped shot on his opening nine holes had been at the 14th, but his round took a turn for the worse as he ran up a hat-trick of bogeys from the second to drop back to just one under on the day.

However, an eagle at the par-five eighth allowed him to claim a share of fourth place.

Kirk had a double-bogey seven on hole four – his 13th after starting on the back nine – but finished birdie-birdie to seize the lead.

The 25-year-old former University of Georgia student had his first PGA Tour top-10 finish at January’s Bob Hope Open but his game had recently gone off the boil, with two missed cuts in a row before this week.

“I just was kind of in a little bit of a funk, I guess,” Kirk said. “And really, I don’t feel like I was playing that bad. I just lost interest somehow.

Magic

“That’s horrible for me to say that as a PGA Tour player, and I have the best job in the world, but I did.

“I sort of lost interest and got to the point where I would make a couple of bogeys and felt like I didn’t want to be out there.

“And so I went home this past weekend and just tried to change basically as many things as possible to try to spark my interest.”

First-round leader Jimmy Walker could not repeat the magic of his opening course-record equalling 63, with a double bogey on the 11th leaving him two over on the day and seven under overall, alongside Harrington and Josh Teater, who went round in 72.

Defending Masters champion Phil Mickelson and last year’s runner-up Lee Westwood continued their preparations for Augusta with rounds of 70 and 72 respectively to leave them both at four under par.

World number two Westwood is the top British contender, with fellow Englishmen Ross Fisher and Brian Davis at three under and one under.

European Ryder Cup captain Jose Maria Olazabal had another dismal day on the course, following his opening 77 with an 83.